Let me just preface this by admitting the following: I graduated from high school twenty years ago today. In celebration, I post about a book I first read that year. In fact, I will post a book by a well-known author who I had a chance to meet a full ten years later!
Title: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Title: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Authors: Christ Crutcher
Original Publication Date: 1993
Date I First Read: Summer 1993
Basic Category: Fiction / YA/Teen Fiction
Basic Summary: Eric and Sarah Byrnes were childhood friends because they were both different - Eric was fat and Sarah had burn scars from early childhood. Sarah is now catatonic, and Eric is trying to help her. And then there are the school scenes - a Contemporary American Thought class, where different classmates have different views, and Eric ends up being injured.
What I Remember About the Book: The hypocritical views on abortion among the classmates. The classmate who was always spouting conservative Christian rhetoric in class. . . and then his girlfriend became pregnant, and he encourage an abortion. I was stunned by that at the time. I always thought that if you really believed in something, you should stand by those beliefs. This made me start question - more than I had already - what I personally believed.
What I Took Away From the Book: I loved this book the first time I read it. I walked around thinking about it for days. I have been afraid, honestly, to re-read this book. What if I feel differently twenty years later? I have an autographed copy of this book in the paperback edition from 2003.
Meeting Mr. Crutcher and hearing him talk either in late 2003 or early 2004 was great. He does put much of his experience as a counselor, etc, into the books
Meeting Mr. Crutcher and hearing him talk either in late 2003 or early 2004 was great. He does put much of his experience as a counselor, etc, into the books
Rating (1-5 stars): 5 (At the time. I am thinking about re-reading it.)
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