Dieting and Restriction

The central theme of the novel, as implied by the title, is dieting: specifically the relationship between dieting and the broader concept of restriction in general. For Plum, the calorie restrictions of the diets she follows – specifically the Baptist Plan and Waist Watchers – lead to broader restrictions in the rest of her life. As a teenager, after beginning the Baptist Plan diet, Plum found that her social life and her family life was restricted by the rigid requirements of the program that obliged her to only ever eat Baptist branded products. During the summer vacation in which Plum followed the Baptist Plan, she cancelled a trip to visit her dad, because she feared it would interfere with her diet: “When July came, my father sent me my yearly airline ticket, Los Angeles to Boise, but I told him I couldn’t visit. There was...