The book is very funny, often unexpectedly touching and insightful. It also includes recipes at the end of many of the chapters. Overall it left me hungry for chicken and crab with cheese in phyllo and for more of Jenny Gardner's writing. Jenny Gardiner's Slim to None is simply great fun.
Jenny Gardiner's new novel, Slim to None, starts with a marvelous premise. Abby Jenning's, the food critic for a major New York newspaper, eats her way out of her job. One of the job requirements of reviewing restaurants is to remain incognito. After a photo of her appears in a competing newspaper, and her girth makes the prospect of disguising herself unlikely, her editor reassigns Abby to a desk job for six months. In that time she needs to lose weight, as well as come to terms with her relationship with food, her husband and a family she didn't know existed. She is assisted in her efforts by a homeless man who may not be as he seems, her dog Cognac, and a philandering friend. She must also do battle with a decidedly sneaky and corrupt colleague, who is standing in for her as restaurant reviewer and wants her job on a permanent basis.
