This is my first book review for a fiction book on this weight loss blog and it fits in well because weight and more specifically the vanity issues surrounding wanting to be a lower weight is the key theme in Two Weeks Under by Rivka Tadjer.
First, I will remind you that while I was sent this book by Tadjer’s publicist, that in no means clouds what I say in any review. My reviews are worthless if they are not 100% honest, and that is what I strive to be in any of my product reviews.
The Story
Professional women in Manhattan have suddenly taken to committing suicide. At the same time a new diet fad has emerged - vanity comas. A company called Monarch has a method called Metamorphosis that promises a new body in just “two weeks under” via an in-home coma.
The protagonist in the story, 35 year old Senior VP Elana Diamond, is a professional woman herself, competing with her ex-boyfriend to become president of her Fashion agency firm. Reminders of the power of weight and looks are never far from Elana whether it is dealing with supermodels or the expectations of the president she wants to replace. Ruminating on what happened to the fun times she used to have with her girlfriends on the weekends when they drank wine and ate “cheese and crackers by the pound” she thinks they are now “overbooked, overextended and overweight.”
The two story lines become intermixed when someone tied to Elana commits suicide, and Elana gets embroiled into the investigation surrounding the mystery of the suicide and the relationship to the latest diet fad of vanity comas, all while trying to impress her boss enough for him to annoint her president of her firm.
My Take
I enjoyed Two Weeks Under, reading it in just a couple of sittings. The writing is good and the pace never lets up. Certainly the premise was a little wacky and there were a number of times where events happened that were just too perfect (and unrealistic), such as the business presentations gone wrong, but ultimately I liked this book in the same way I like fun movies that the critics like to pan - you simply embrace the things that aren’t realistic and accept them without being critical, staying focused on the enjoyment you are getting from the book.
It’s been awhile since I have devoured a book as quickly as I did Two Weeks Under and I think that speaks volumes to whether it is a book worth reading.
I think it is.
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