RICHARD KLEIN - Eat Fat

London England, Picador, 1997. First Edition, Binding: Boards, Fine/Very Good/fine. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall 0330342932 Hardback 'Fat is beautiful, sexy and strong. Politicians cultivate it, singers require it, gourmets appreciate it, and lovers play with it. Fat is a fabulous three-letter word.' So ends the preface to Richard Kelin's new book, a perverse, delightful and ingenious celebration of fat. In it he argues against dieting and against our culture's current obsession with weight; as the western world appears to be getting fatter he wonders whether there is a good reason for fat as he delights in all its forms, shapes and sizes. While there is ample evidence that fat is unhealthy for some, for the vast majority of us the risks involved in combating it must be seriously evaluated. As Richard Klein writes 'Fat serves to embody our drive for satisfaction and the urge to pleasure, as well as much that is self-destructive and self demeaning in our lives'. Cheeky and playful yet devastating in its insights, Eat Fat intends nothing less than a revolution in how we think about this complex issue. In this tour de force the author traces the older, positive meanings of the word 'fat'. He analyzes 'the thing fat', discussing not only the aesthetics of fat but also the nature of fat (including the latest medical findings). He examines 'fat sex' including representatations of the human body designed to arouse people whose taste in beauty is fat. And he explores 'political fat' i.e. the relation to fat to power. Eat Fat is a highly iconociastic 'postmodern diet book' that will be gleefully devoured by its readers. Illustrated with B/W photos.