The Skinny

<b><i>Vogue''s</i> Best Books of Summer 2021</b><br><br>¿Everyone had a clearer vision of my body than I did. It didn¿t feel as if my body was really mine...¿ At age fourteen, Jonathan Wells weighs just sixty-seven pounds, triggering a scrutinizing persecution of his body that will follow him into adulthood.<br><br>Upstate New York in the 1970s: A boy in preparatory day school suffers a harrowing attack by a teacher offended by his failure to put on weight. For the first time in his young life, Jonathan Wells is forced to question his right to take up space in the world. Jonathan¿s father, reading his weight as a clear and deeply concerning deficit of masculinity, creates a workout regimen meant to bulk him up. When that doesn¿t help, he has Jonathan seen by a slew of specialists, all claiming he is in perfect health, and yet the problem cannot be denied: the boy is simply too skinny.<br><br>Jonathan¿s complicated relationship with his charming but elusive mother does not help matters.