Not Even Sure What To Say About This
There’s a book out there called The High Impact Infidelity Diet by Lou Harry and Eric Pfeffinger. The good news is that this is fiction not self help. Since I’m at a bit of a loss over what to say about this book, I’ll go with the publisher’s description:
A WHOLE NEW WAY TO CHEAT ON YOUR DIET
Meet Brin and Martin, Cheryl and Doug, Dierdre and Randy. Three normal married couples who share a common problem: all of the husbands weigh over 300 pounds–and not much of that’s muscle. The concerned wives concoct a plan and offer up a deal. Each guy who scales down to 210 pounds gets a free pass to spend an evening with a beautiful hooker Brin just happens to know from college.Of course, there’s no such hooker. The wives only hope that the incentive will help their men lose a few inches off their guts. Unfortunately, Brin, Cheryl, and Dierdre underestimate the power of the male competitive drive. As the men begin to shed pounds, the women find themselves on a frantic search to find the perfect prostitute.
Follow along on a hilarious journey as three marriages, six friendships, 300 pounds of fat, and one saucy hooker endure the ups and downs of the worst weight-loss plan ever.
Kirkus Reviews said:
An idiotic, implausible novel about three women who use the prospect of sex with a prostitute to get their husbands to lose weight.
I say: someone read it and tell me how stupid it is. I just have to know.
January 15th, 2006 at 10:52 am
When that happens, HelenKay, please post it on the blog! I want to know too. LOL.
January 15th, 2006 at 11:17 am
What a ridiculous idea. I guess the author was trying to be ‘different’.
January 15th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
hehe I have this coming to me from PBS. I’ll be sure to let you know how it is. I’ll even consider dropping everything to read it when it arrives
January 18th, 2006 at 9:28 am
Good morning,
Saw the mention of my book The High-Impact Infidelity Diet on your site. I hope if one of your readers gets a chance to take a look, they’ll like it as much as The Denver Post and Romantic Times did. The book was also recently recommended by Jessica Weiner, author of Do I Look Fat in This, in her newsletter. And Warner Bros has picked up the movie rights for the production duo Team Todd (Must Loves Dogs, Austin Powers).
No, we weren’t just trying to be “different” (although is that a bad thing?). We were trying to write a funny, revealing, thought-provoking novel about marriage, friendship and body image (okay, yes, and prostitution and portion control).
If you do get a chance to read it. Drop me a note. I’d love to hear what you think.
Be well,
Lou Harry
Co-author: The High-Impact Infidelity Diet (Random House)
Author: Creative Block (Running Press)
Co-author: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures (Quirk Books)
January 18th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
I’m not at all surprised this has been picked up as a movie. There is an excellent recent post at Making Light about stupid plot devices: Parsimony and Refinement
“The reason writers use implausibly inefficient approaches is that they start with a big dramatic thing they want to do, then come up with some sloppily pasted-on justification for doing it.”
That would be, the authors want three “happily married” guys to have sex with a prostitute, with their wives’ blessing.
Woohoo. Three guys who can’t be bothered to look in a mirror and say “ewww” go on a diet because their wives are “concerned”. Wacky hijinx ensue.
The only problem is, 300-plus pounds is not “body image” — it’s “health issues,” unless they’re more than 7 feet tall.
If it’s true that obesity causes the body to age faster, will these guys even be able to get it up for the hooker when the diet is over?
January 21st, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Lou -
Thanks for stopping by and for being such a good sport. Congrats on the movie deal. I missed that part but am always in favor of authors making great deals.
I have to admit that my initial inclination on the book is the same as waterbaby’s. That reaction could easily be wrong and, as you point out, some reviewers have been very positive. In the spirit of fair play and in my quest not to be a total jackass in 2006, I’ll buy the book and see for myself.
January 25th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Hey hey HellenKay,
I get waterbaby’s raction–to the premise. When I presented the idea to my co-writer, he had a similar reaction.
But that’s a reaction to the premise and assumptions about where it would go. It’s not a reaction to the book itself. I think anyone who reads the book will find something different than she did. If we wanted merely to titilate by justifying three men having sex with a prositute, we would have written a very, very different book.
Plus, we never said that all of the couples were “happily married.” One relationship starts out in good shape, another is a mess, and the third is someone on the brink. The story is largely about how the notion of extramarital sex–not necessarily the sex itself–gets these people to think about what their marriages mean.
That’s not to say it’s not funny, just that we believe there’s a beating heart underneath it all. At least, that’s the book we were trying to write. As you know, readers bring whatever they have to it and it’s that writer/reader relationship, with all the baggage on both sides, that keeps things lively.
FYI: If you’re readers are also writers (or would-be writers), I’m going to take a second to plug my book Creative Block (Running Press). Forgive me.
Be well,
Lou