In clothes called fat

In America, manga is often seen as a nerdy subgenre, albeit an incredibly popular one. It's not uncommon for a library's manga holdings to take up a large chunk of the graphic novels sections with volume series about vampires, cats, or teens who turn into cat vampires (I'm just guessing here). But in Japan, the style is used to tell all kinds of stories, and Anno's book is a fantastic example of serious adult manga work that rarely gets translated into the English language. Noko is a chubby young woman with an eating problem who works in an office full of pretty, skinny, mean girls. Her boyfriend says he likes her size, but he's sneaking around with the office's queen bee. Tormented by this, Noko decides to get her eating under control and becomes dangerously bulimic. Her boyfriend rejects her, her coworkers still hate her, and she's traded in one disorder for another, spiraling slowly into madness. Anno's illustrations of binges and purges, bony bodies and sallow faces are haunting, effective, and suit the story perfectly. Verdict A raw, unflinching look at how external pressure and internal vanity can mangle the human spirit. Cautionary but not oversimplified, In Clothes Called Fat is a wonderful example of manga's artistic and narrative possibilities.-Emilia Packard, Austin, TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.