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| Wake Up, I'm Fat! | 
 enlarge | Author: Camryn Manheim
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $19.00
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $18.99 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (120 reviews)
Sales Rank: 215863
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0767903633
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.028
EAN: 9780767903639
ASIN: 0767903633
Publication Date: May 2000
Release Date: May 9, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this New York Times-bestselling inspirational memoir, Camryn Manheim, Emmy Award-winning costar of The Practice, chronicles her journey from a self-hating, "overweight" teenager, who desperately wanted to fit in, to a self-loving, fat activist who is proud to be a misfit.Wake Up, I'm Fat! shares her intelligent, candid, poignant, and often hilarious stories of being fat in a society obsessed with being thin.
Camryn takes us from her days as a motorcycle-riding hippie in Santa Cruz to her enrollment at New York University's prestigious school of drama--where Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner broke the unspoken theater rules of size by casting her in the role of the ingenue--and finally to Hollywood, where she dispelled the fallacy that large women can't be portrayed as sensual, sophisticated, and confident.
Camryn's endearing honesty, sass, and razor-sharp wit will appeal to any reader who has ever felt like an outcast or yearned to make peace with their body.
Amazon.com Review
You already know Camryn Manheim can act. She won the Emmy Award as the don't-mess-with-me attorney Ellenor Frutt on The Practice. Manheim made the ceremony itself entertaining by hoisting her trophy and hollering, "This is for all the fat girls!" But can she write? Yes. This memoir is by turns funny ("If Barbie were a real woman, she'd have to walk on all fours due to her proportions") and excruciating. It helps that the material was honed in a one-woman show that sold out at New York's big-deal Public Theater, but the subject matter was strange and interesting in the first place. Manheim could not possibly be a less likely candidate for artistic and commercial success on TV. Born Debi Manheim in Peoria, the very metaphor for mainstream culture, Manheim re-created herself as a dozen-earringed California biker chick, a Renaissance Faire wench, a protester who helped drive the Miss California Pageant out of Santa Cruz, and one of 28 actors in America accepted at NYU's exclusive graduate school. In her book, Manheim gets even with her cruel, fat-bashing teachers; credits the director who gave her her first ingenue lead role (Tony Kushner, who cast her in Fen); and tells how the same temper that got her booted from school and arrested also won her the TV role that made her name. There's good gossip for drama buffs. Manheim ribs her famous boss David Kelley within an inch of her livelihood; rips into Celeste Holm for cattiness backstage in Clare Boothe Luce's The Women; and opines that Bridget Fonda, whom she got naked next to in a movie, "could use a sandwich." But it's the private-life stuff that sticks with you. Read her touching, hilarious account of a personal-ad date from hell, and how she got even by picking up the hunky model who plays the Marlboro Man. She is not making this up!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 115 more reviews...
Great book, but she seems to have altered her opinion about fat and health April 26, 2008
I love Camryn Mannheim and her book. I'd give this a 4.5 if I could, because since she wrote the book, she's lost quite a bit of weight and puts the reasoning for it on being a mother.
I hated it when Carnie Wilson went from being a NAAFA member and spokesperson for loving yourself at any size to being obsessed with being thin. She's admitted to lying about why she had WLS and has made a snootful of money pimping it to others. She has been a major factor in the deaths of hundreds of (mostly) women who didn't make it after the surgery and her recommendation of it.
And I am very saddened by Mannheim's abandonment of her principals of fat-acceptance and the people who have supported her and her book.
Isn't there anyone out there who will stay committed to the cause and not cave in when someone runs some cash under their noses or threatens their career if they don't lose weight?
Ack. Love the book. Disappointed in Mannheim today.
Read This December 17, 2007
This was both an intertaining a introspective read. Camryn Manheim is funny, smart, human, and beautiful. This book made me look at the excuses I make for my failures and the things I allow to stand in the way of my success. I was able to relate to Camryn much more than I could relate to Oprah when I read her book. It is a book for all women, all mothers, and a book I would want my boyfriend to read. Thank you Camryn, I wish we could meet some day.
great on many levels, thanks, Camryn December 8, 2007
I just happened into a copy of the book when I had a little time to kill, then I could hardly put it down. I enjoyed the book and the many reviews that have been written here. I normally write reviews on obscure books where there are only a few, if any, reviews so this is different for me and I doubt if i have too much to add. Beyond the self acceptance theme that has been much reviewed (I have fat issues and support Camryn's views (mostly)), I liked the book on many other levels. Of course I liked the humor and human interest of growing up in America. The struggle for success story is good too. I especially liked the unconventional approach to the book itself. Frnakly, I did not much the Cammy--fat dialogs, but I liked many of the other, unusual things like asides and notes to herself and others throughout. There were other quirky approaches that I really liked too. I really like the book and recommend it highly.
 Funny, but it didn't make me feel any better about my weight! July 20, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Camryn Manheim is an sassy, award-winning actress and laugh-out-loud funny. This book is a personal account of her experiences of fat-ism and her journey to self-acceptance.
Manheim is a natural storyteller and, being overweight myself, there was a lot here to relate to, but although I enjoyed the book, there were no groundbreaking revelations for me here ... though it does make a pretty strong case against society's obsession with being thin, this book is in no way a "self-help" book (to be fair, it doesn't claim to be) and it didn't help me to "make peace" with my fat. It did however make me laugh a lot and that's reason enough to encourage others to read it!
Thank you Camryn, for speaking out for big women everywhere.
Probably Calista Flockheart's archenemy July 9, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Camryn Manheim is a fat activist. Her experiences in a world where people are literally dying to be thin include getting in to the NYU Masters of Fine Arts program, gracing the cover of "fat" magazines such as Radiance and winning an Emmy for her performance on The Practice. She is a likeable, mature and attractive woman who has fought passionately for what she believes in. But does that make one a good author? In Manheim's case, it damn well does.
"Wake up, I'm fat," is a hilarious, bittersweet page-turner. This socially critical memoir mainly deals with one individual's struggles on growing up in our superficial world. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, be it because of their race, religion or looks, will immediately be able to relate to the amiable narrator.
Manheim manages to be honest about the ugly underbelly of today's beauty image and her struggles without sounding whiny. She uses dark humor and clever prose to describe how she got to where she is today.
Subjects such as erotic weight gain or personal ads are also dealt with in this book. They may make the reader feel slightly squeamish at first, but ultimately they just make this book a more interesting read. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about "the underdog being on top" or who simply likes a good story told well.
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