Big Brother

Big Brother is the latest novel by Lionel Schriver, and it explores our responsibility to our overweight family members.

Now, if you are doing the Michelle Bridges 12WBT, you have probably already owned up to a weight problem, or are working to better your fitness and be the best person you can be.

But what do we do about those we love, who are in that state of denial, or are unable to take the first step towards a healthy life.

In the novel, Pandora, a mildly overweight businesswoman, sees her brother for the first time in four years. He is now several times the person he once was. On the scale from morbidly to mortally obese, he is sliding rapidly towards the dead end.

What do you do when your brother comes to visit and he can’t fit in any of your chairs, or worse, breaks the one he does sit in? When your grocery bill suddenly triples and food keeps disappearing from the pantry?

How do you deal with the “elephant in the room’’ when the metaphorical elephant is someone you love dearly, but he doesn’t want to do anything about the problem? Without giving away too much of the plot, the story centres on Pandora’s ability/inability to help him.

In Schriver’s case, the story is partly autobiographic, as her own brother died of respiratory failure at about 181 kilograms, after battling addictions including food.

The story will strike a chord with anyone who has a family member who is unhealthy and large, or who has had their own family ‘intervention’  or interference in their own health.

It opens up many issues about our responsibilities as individuals and as a society.

Should our government tax unhealthy foods, or not serve junk food to people obviously overweight? Can we force our big brothers to become the little brothers they once were?

So what do you think? Do you wish someone in your family had sat you down and forced you to think about your weight? Or do you resent it when everyone else gets asked if they want seconds for dessert, but you mysteriously are missed out?

I feel what it boils down to is that if we each took responsibility for our own health, our family and society would be spared the burden of the heart-wrenching decisions Pandora faces in Big Brother.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

And read the book, it’s a beauty.