Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes

Narrator Eric Calhoune, also known as Moby at his high school, is trying to figure out what’s wrong with his old partner in crime, Sarah Byrnes, who is suddenly catatonic and hospitalized. As to what has set her off, Eric isn’t sure, but he suspects that her silence may be prompted by what he feels qualifies as hisown callous betrayal of her. Throughout the space of the novel, Eric searches for the best way to help his old friend. What he doesn’t know is that she is in much graver trouble than he could ever imagine.

In middle school, Eric and Sarah were both self-professed “terminal uglies”: Eric for being overweight (and thus given the Moby Dick nickname) and Sarah for being badly scarred by childhood burns on her hands and face. Their outcast status bonded them intensely. Together,they authored an underground newspaper called Crispy Pork Rinds, the moniker beinga sarcastic tribute to Sarah’s skin condition and Eric’s weight concerns. Crispy Pork Rinds publishedoutlandish gossip pieces about school staff and students, focusing most particularly on bullies and those that mocked them. The duo’s underhanded revenge through writing gave them an outlet to deal with their anxiety and shame over their physical appearance.