A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is a behind-the-scenes look into the life of the woman with whom many of us feel a parasocial relationship. Beyond her velvet voice, steely determination and dogged persistence, she is a family-oriented woman who straddles two cultures – those of her heritage and the country she now calls home.
In this memoir, Rabia Chaudry talks about her relationship with food and all it represents. She lives in a contradictory world so many do, where food is presented as love. You’re expected to eat heartily while remaining slim. Failing to ask for seconds is an insult, but gaining weight is asking for insults.
Rabia is an incredibly accomplished attorney, author, podcaster and advocate, but she still seems like someone I could chat comfortably with over a cup of tea. The book flows nicely, talking about her childhood, family, education, and travels to Pakistan, weaving vignettes of her life together into a seamless tapestry. It’s a pleasant, relatable read. Pleasant sounds like faint praise, but it’s not intended that way.
It’s a well-seasoned comfort meal of a book – both bitter and sweet.
I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Fatty Fatty Boom Boom from NetGalley and Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher’s Description
“A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are . . . I absolutely loved it!” —Valerie Bertinelli
Rabia Chaudry—known from the podcast Serial and her bestselling book, Adnan’s Story, as well as her own wildly popular podcast, Undisclosed—serves up a candid and intimate memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a tight knit but sometimes overly concerned Pakistani immigrant family.
“My entire life I have been less fat and more fat, but never not fat.” Rabia Chaudry was raised with a lot of love—and that love looked like food. Delicious Pakistani dishes—fresh roti, chaat, pakoras, and shorba—and also Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, and an abundance of American processed foods, as her family discovered its adopted country through its (fast) food.
At the same time, her family was becoming increasingly alarmed about their chubby daughter’s future. Most importantly, how would she ever get married? In Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, Chaudry chronicles the dozens of times she tried and failed to achieve what she was told was her ideal weight. The truth is, though, she always loved food too much to hold a grudge against it.
At once an ode to Pakistani cuisine, including Chaudry’s favorite recipes; a love letter to her Muslim family both here and in Lahore; and a courageously honest portrait of a woman grappling with a body that gets the job done but refuses to meet the expectations of others. For anyone who has ever been weighed down by their weight— whatever it is—Chaudry shows us how freeing it is to finally make peace with the body we have.
