The time for BIG & Fabulous, The Life and Times of Brenda Cankles is now! The emphasis is on positive body image. Big & Fabulous is a truly entertaining story that's strongly written, funny, insightful and bitingly smart. Inside its covers, readers will find no shortage of acidly hilarious accounts of the highs and lows of living life inside a big and fabulous body.
Big & Fabulous - The Life and Times of Brenda Cankles by Randi M. Sherman
Randi M. Sherman writes in a friendly, engaging style which instantly draws you in, and our heroine Brenda Cankles is an easy character to like. The story begins in Brenda's childhood, explains a little about the family dynamic, then carries on chronologically through Brenda's life taking in her adolescence and her forays into semi-responsible adulthood. Her parents are mildly dysfunctional - they're a pair of gambling-addicted lushes who give their children gifts of swizzle sticks from lounge bars when they go on holiday without their offspring. Brenda is a spirited girl who has great self love and body image even from a young age, which was great and empowering to read, even in a work of fiction. I've had it with the usual trope of 'I'll never find anyone to love me with this fat body!' and I'm glad to say Brenda is just my kinda gal in that respect. She knows she's got it all going on and is in no doubt one day her prince will come.Here's a quote I loved (it made me want to punch the air!):
Complement me on my recent promotion, an award, or my new home, but please don't dig to the bottom of your compliment barrel and offer up a lame, "Oh you have such a pretty face." I'm ample, not stupid, and not desperate for your approval. I know I have a pretty face and an incredible mind. And I have a gorgeous round, soft and fleshy body, too. I'd fuck me if I could!
As well as empowering passages like this, there are quite a few belly laugh moments in the book as well. There's one where a man is referred to as being 'leg-spreadingly handsome', which nearly made me laugh up a major organ. There's another moment where Brenda is trying to mount a massage table in a decorous way whilst naked. I've never been on a massage table but it made me giggle so much because I know I'd struggle get up on one myself without showing everybody a full moon.
I could go on and on, but I won't except to say go read it! If you're sick of simpering literary 'heroines' and books which are about as funny as an impacted bowel, grab yourself the book on the Kindle or paperback and visit Randi's website. There's not a moment of self pity to be found in this book, just relatable stories and plenty of giggles.
I have not been paid for this post but I did receive a free e-copy of the book.
Thanks for reading. Leah xoxo
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