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All of Me: A Voluptuous Tale by Venise Berry
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Venise Berry Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2001-04-01 ISBN: 0451202627 Number of pages: 288 Publisher: NAL Trade
Book Reviews of All of Me: A Voluptuous TaleBook Review: So real! Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first book that I have read by this author and I had no idea what to expect. I knew it was about a African American woman that was of large build. This book proved so true to real life. I could identify with many of the stereotypes that the main character of this novel, Serpintine, faced, aside from trying to commit suicide. Serpintine was a professional woman who worked as a television reporter which put her in the public eye and up for public scrutiny. As she began to put on weight her public made no qualms about telling her she was getting fat. If you think Serpintine could seek solace in her family, think again; her mother was a constant reminder of what she should be doing to control her weight. This author takes us through Serpintine's quest to find out how to love herself as she is, a big beautiful smart african american woman who should apologize to no one. But that quest was long and difficult with many trials. This book made me laugh out loud and it made me stop and think. Good job Ms. Berry, do it again!
Summary of All of Me: A Voluptuous TaleSo Good, Venise Berry's first novel, spent six months on Essence magazine's Blackboard bestseller list and was an Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild. With All of Me, Berry again delivers a compelling, humorous, and poignant story on a subject that plagues half the women in America?weight. Serpentine Williamson has a good life: an exciting career as a television reporter in Chicago, a sexy boyfriend, membership in a popular gospel choir, and a family who loves her. But in the midst of her positives lies a powerful negative?her lifelong struggle with weight. After years of buying into fads and labels, Serpentine finds her world crumbling. And, finally losing the battle to uphold her plummeting self-esteem, she breaks down and needs to be hospitalized. All of Me is a heartwarming, inspiring, and often funny chronicle of Serpentine's fight for recovery. As she learns to meet her challenges with dignity and strength she also learns to love herself, for the first time, just the way she is. All of Me will resonate with women of all shapes and sizes and will once again affirm Venise Berry as a fresh voice in African-American women's fiction, whose snappy characters, according to Rosalyn McMillan, "double-dare you to put the book down." At the opening of Venise Berry's absorbing second novel, TV reporter Serpentine Williamson is jotting a few dispirited lines into a journal that her psychiatrist has insisted she keep. She has tried to kill herself. Yes, she tells Dr. Greeley, a man was involved, "but a lot more was going on in my head." What really drove her to attempt suicide was her own damaged self-image as a full-figured black woman and her constant, discouraging attempts to drop the pounds, find a good man, and make her mark in television. Since childhood, Serpentine has embraced every fad diet and weight-loss technique as it emerged, even submitting herself to a humiliating seaweed wrap that required her to stand for two hours in an empty bathtub draped in strips of wet plastic, looking, as her sister pointed out, "like a piece of Mama's day-old fried chicken when it's wrapped in the 'frigerator." Nothing made much of a difference. As it turns out, her recovery focuses not on her weight--or any single issue--but on Serpentine's expanded view of herself and her own possibilities. Near the end of the novel, Dr. Greeley tells her that it's clear, finally, that she loves herself. The question is how much. Leaving her doctor's office, Serpentine sees a shop sign advertising spa getaways, an indulgence she has never permitted herself. In that moment, Serpentine knew her guiding fire was at work. Sometimes it was a vivid blaze lighting her way. Other times it was a smoldering ember that allowed her to choose her own path. She followed the fire inside the double glass doors. Eventually, as her newfound assurance leads her out of her depression, she can describe her much-loved aunt in terms that might apply to herself, as well: "Her wide shoulders over ample hips are attached to big, pretty legs. It's a body that serves as an appropriate container for her exuberant spirit." --Regina Marler
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