Marisa Meltzer is a journalist based in New York who has contributed to the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. She was born in Northern California and is the author of two previous books, How Sassy Changed My Life and Girl Power.
"Meltzer looks at her own pursuit of weight loss and uses it to
illuminate our culture's relentless focus on thinness."--The Daily
Beast
"This is Big...[finds] in Nidetch both a genuine pioneer - a woman
who built a massive culture-defining business as a time when women
couldn't even have their own credit cards - and a representative of
many ideas about weight and health that are as destructive as they
are enduring."--Vanity Fair
"This is Big is a brave, bold, funny, honest, riveting book that
made me have every kind of feeling in the world."--Jami Attenberg,
author of All Grown Up
"[Meltzer] writes with a voice that feels like you're chatting with
one of your best friends, cracking jokes and digging into all the
emotions you'd usually hide from others who aren't as close to
you."--First for Women
"[This] brilliant book tells the story of thinness obsession
through the lives of two women-Jean Nidetch, the founder of Weight
Watchers, and Meltzer herself."--Glamour
"A triumphant chronicle... Meltzer has created singular
companionate text for those who know the agony of frustration
surrounding weight as an issue, both personal and political.
Acerbic, culturally astute and genuine, [Meltzer] makes exquisite
company in the struggle."--New York Times
"A witty and meaningful look at our obsession with weight and
dieting; blending the story of the founder of Weight Watchers with
her own saga, Marisa Meltzer crafts an amusing story with universal
insights.''--SheilaWeller, author of Girls Like Us: Carole King,
Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -and the Journey of a Generation and
Carrie Fisher; A Life On The Edge
"For anyone who has ever felt defeated by food, betrayed by their
own body, embarrassed for not only lacking the willpower to change
their habits but also embarrassed by the desire to change their own
body, Marisa Meltzer sees you, has written this book for you
because she is you. While simultaneously delving into the history
of the woman who started Weight Watchers and bravely and honestly
examining her own complicated relationship with food and weight,
Marisa has written a book that perfectly captures our country's
obsession with THIN and the struggle with obesity at this moment in
history."--Busy Philipps, author of This Will Only Hurt A
Little
"Her life changed dramatically as she realized you can live a big
life at any size."--People
"Her story will resonate with readers who have struggled with
weight and body image issues. A straightforward memoir of
struggling with obesity and finding inspiration from the founder of
Weight Watchers."--Kirkus
"If you've ever been critical of diets, diet companies, and diet
culture in the past, you're going to love what Meltzer has to offer
here."--Bustle
"Insightful...a thoughtful exploration of how to make diet choices
on one's own terms."--Publishers Weekly
"Inventive...Meltzer's own experience with weight loss."--Bitch
"Journalist Marisa Meltzer interweaves her personal dieting history
with a compelling biography of Jean Nidetch, the woman who founded
Weight Watchers. As the author chronicles her own journey through
the popular program, she describes how Nidetch-despite getting and
staying thin-struggled at home and at work. In the end, Meltzer
learns and grows in unexpected ways."--Real Simple
"Marisa Meltzer is an ingenious writer. This Is Big expertly weaves
together two engaging tales: the charming, funny, and often
heartbreaking account of Meltzer's lifelong attempts at bodily
transformation, and the little-known story of a largely forgotten
American icon Jean Nidetch, the irrepressible, pathbreaking
entrepreneur who founded the now billion-dollar company Weight
Watchers in her modest living room in 1963."--Nancy Jo Sales,
author of American Girls and The Bling Ring
"Marisa Meltzer's new Weight Watchers biography feels surprisingly
in sync with the emotional arc of isolation eating."--Wall Street
Journal Magazine
"Meltzer did a deep dive into Jean Nidetch, the Queens, NY,
housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963, for a book that is
part biography, part memoir of her own lifelong journey with
dieting."--New York Post
"Meltzer writes movingly of her own struggles with having a body,
but her experiment isn't the exclusive focus of the book: It also
chronicles the life of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch, whose
vaudevillian comic timing, retrograde ideas about fat and
happiness, and unconcealed desire for fame and connection make her
a fascinating subject."--Vox
"Meltzer's engaging history of Weight Watchers and candid account
of her own dieting journey is a frank and affirming portrait of the
ways women, in particular, have always coped with health and self
image."
--Booklist
"Not a memoir of radical self-acceptance or saccharine inspiration,
but a candid - at times dark - look at what it means to be an
overweight woman in 2020."--Los Angeles Times
"The cleverly told story of both Jean Nidetch, founder of Weight
Watchers, and Meltzer's own lifelong battle with her body and her
weight."--Kim France, Girls of a Certain Age
"This book is an honest, open exploration of one woman's
relationship with her body as it exists in the world."--Here
Magazine
"This book is an incredible hybrid: both a detailed study of an
extraordinary American life, and a candid and revealing memoir.
Meltzer is the biographer Jean Nidetech deserves, crafting a
portrait of the woman and the world in which she lived. She's also
a bracing memoirist, a warm and honest voice unafraid to offer
readers the stuff of her own life to help us better understand the
culture we now share. It's a remarkable feat."--Rumaan Alam, author
of That Kind of Mother and Rich and Pretty
"This book was so good that I devoured it (with no guilt)! Meltzer
shows us, through honesty, rawness and deep vulnerability, the
complexities of living in a body that doesn't adhere to society's
narrow beauty standards in an era that holds up body positivity as
gospel."--Mara Altman, author of Gross Anatomy
"This heartfelt, incisive book layers the story of Weight Watchers
founder Jean Nidetch with the author's own lifelong journey through
various fad diets. What emerges is a surprising portrait of a
remarkable but little-known life in business, as well as a
thoughtful critique of America's obsession with
thinness."--Esquire
Named a Best Book of the Year by
Glamour
Esquire
Real Simple
"In this memoir-nonfiction hybrid, Meltzer skillfully blends her
own extensive dieting history with the life story of Jean Nidetch,
the Queens housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963 and helped
to create "diet culture" as we know it today." Vogue
--Vogue
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