Born Round

Starred review from July 6, 2009
Outgoing New York Times
restaurant critic Bruni admits he was even a baby bulimic in his extraordinary memoir about a lifelong battle with weight problems. To his Southern Italian paternal grandmother, food equaled love. Cooking and parenting from Old World traditions, she passed these maternal and culinary principles on to her WASP daughter-in-law, whose own weight struggles her son eventually inherited. Through adolescence, puberty and into college, Bruni oscillated from gluttonous binges to adult bulimia, including laxative abuse. Vocationally, journalism called, first through the college paper, then a progression of internships and staff positions in Detroit and New York, including his stints as a Bush campaign reporter in 2000 and as the Times
Rome correspondent. In tandem, Bruni's powerlessness over his appetite developed from cafeteria meals to Chinese delivery binges to sleep eating. While Bruni includes such entertaining bits as the campaign trail seen through Weight Watcher lens and ample meals from his years as the Times
restaurant critic, in the end, his is a powerful, honest book about desire, shame, identity and self-image.

July 15, 2009
Foreign correspondent Bruni (Ambling Into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush, 2002, etc.) faces a menu of challenges after taking a coveted job as the New York Times restaurant critic.

Growing up eating the lavish meals cooked by his Italian mother, it was apparent early on that Bruni would be forever consumed by food. But the author didn't just love to eat; he was obsessed with it, tossing down triple helpings and throwing tantrums when his mother refused further offerings."I had been a plump infant and was on my way to becoming an even plumper child," he writes,"a ravenous machine determined to devour anything in its sights." Self-conscious about his expanding midriff, the soon-to-be journalist's disorder manifested into bulimia by college in an on-again/off-again battle that would stay with him through his tenure as a Times White House correspondent and later during a post in Italy. When he received the offer to sacrifice his European spot to become the Times' restaurant critic, Bruni was torn. Living in Italy was a lifelong dream fulfilled. More importantly, with his history of eating problems, could he maintain the healthy waistline he'd finally achieved when faced with plate after plate of New York's finest cuisine?"This decision is insane," he writes."But it was also irresistible, even poetic, the kind of ultimate dare or dead reckoning that a good narrative called for." Taking the job, Bruni eased into the critic game like a pro, masking his identity from keen restaurateurs whose staffs were on constant alert. Keeping a constant eye on the scale, he often donned hilarious disguises to outfox his subject's purveyors, and hit the treadmill and Pilates classes to outrun his caloric demons.

A full dish of humor garnished with ample trimmings of self-examination.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
Food has always been Bruni's best friend and his worst enemy. A political journalist and author of the best-selling "Ambling into History", Bruni grew up in an Italian American family where eating was always a celebrationwhich led to an ongoing battle with weight gain. Over the years, Bruni tried any number of fad diets and devoted hours of his life to exercising in an attempt to keep his weight down. Thus, accepting the job of restaurant critic for the "New York Times" in 2004 sounded crazy, but it is only after he began his new job that Bruni reached his own truce with food. VERDICT Readers who devour the juicy insider details of the restaurant review businessas in Ruth Reichl's "Garlic and Sapphires"will be equally entertained by this well-written book, but Bruni's painfully honest, tartly humorous life story will also be a hit with anyone who has struggled with the numbers on the scale.John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2009
There are very few emotions that New York Times restaurant critic Brunis autobiography does not invokeall well and good for what should be an army of readers. His book is funny and sad, heartwarming and anger provoking, and candid and cagey. The author (who also penned the more serious Ambling into History, 2002, about George W. Bushs 2000 campaign) chronicles his struggles with weight over the four decades of his life, through literally thick and thin. At the same time, his gay identity caused him to be overly conscious of his looks, his clothes, his image, sometimes to extreme degrees. Bruni turned to bulimia, colonic/toxic cleansing, drugs, and a variety of diets. What worked? A personal trainer named Aaron, new learned behaviors, and a gradually acquired philosophy of food: I took another bite of the dessert, just so I didnt seem to be avoiding it. But I stopped there. Somehow, Id learned to do that. At least for now. His very public, very successful journalistic career is also profiled, from a full scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Newsweek intern to various New York Times positions here and abroad and, now, ironically, the conquering of his eating disorder during his present tenure as one of the most prestigious restaurant critics in the country. It reads like a novel, resonates like true life, and resounds with a wise life perspective.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)