staying fat for sarah byrnes by chris crutcher

Lemry decides to adopt Sarah but not before Eric has to square off with Sarah’s violent father. Lemry, Sarah goes to Nevada to look for her mother, with whom she hopes to be blissfully reunited. With the help of Eric’s swimming coach, Ms. Eric manages to smuggle Sarah out of the hospital where she is pretending to be catatonic in order to be protected from her father. Sarah is angry when Eric confronts her about this since she told only Dale Thornton and only in strictest confidence. He is shocked to learn from a former classmate, Dale Thornton, that life is worse for Sarah than he could imagine-that her father inflicted those burn wounds on her and continues to abuse her. When Sarah enters the psych ward and stops talking, Eric feels responsible. Worst of all (in Eric’s mind), he begins losing weight, a lot of it, and feels that he no longer shares outsider status with Sarah. Like Sarah Byrnes, Ellerby is a consummate rebel rouser, directing most of his time and attention to riling holier-than-thou art classmate Mark Brittian.

He now has a new best friend, Steve Ellerby, who also competes on the swim team. Constant swim practice and meets keep Eric from spending time with Sarah. A frequent target is the school vice principal, who begins to severely dislike the pair of them because of their antics.īut when Eric joins the swimming team in high school, their relationship changes. While Eric never became as steely and tough as Sarah, their friendship and collaboration allowed him to begin to laugh at his own insecurities and spot the hypocrisy in others. The duo’s underhanded revenge through writing gave them an outlet to deal with their anxiety and shame over their physical appearance. Crispy Pork Rinds publishedoutlandish gossip pieces about school staff and students, focusing most particularly on bullies and those that mocked them. Together,they authored an underground newspaper called Crispy Pork Rinds, the moniker beinga sarcastic tribute to Sarah’s skin condition and Eric’s weight concerns.

Their outcast status bonded them intensely. In middle school, Eric and Sarah were both self-professed “terminal uglies”: Eric for being overweight (and thus given the Moby Dick nickname) and Sarah for being badly scarred by childhood burns on her hands and face.

Staying fat for sarah byrnes by chris crutcher