I Was a 15-Year-Old Blimp

Barbara Lokach was a social worker and freelance writer based in Toronto.

Patti Stren is an “author and illustrator of numerous funny books for children.” The protagonist in this seriocomic novel is teenager Gabby Finklestein, who suffers from bulimia or binge eating.

Gabby also suffers from a lot of other adolescent problems, such as a mother who doesn’t understand her, a younger brother who is “always driving her buggy,” and an unsympathetic peer group that sometimes makes her the target of their cruel jokes. She is eventually redeemed by a supportive father, some good friends, and, most important of all, her own insight and beginning self-worth.

Though this novel deals both compassionately and knowledgeably with the timely subject of bulimia and our society’s obsession with thinness, the characterization and plot are too contrived to do justice to these themes. All the characters come across as one-dimensional except for Gabby, and the above problems are resolved too tidily at the book’s conclusion. There is, in addition, a plethora of jokes throughout the text which, though they serve to deflect Gabby’s pain, are overdone.

The book will appeal mainly to adolescents, bulimic or not, who are lacking in awareness about this eating disorder.