Sarah Byrnes and Eric have been friends for years. When they were children, his fat and her terrible scars made them both outcasts. Later, although swimming slimmed Eric, she stayed his closest friend.

Now Sarah Byrnes -- the smartest, toughest person Eric has ever known -- sits silent in a hospital. Eric must uncover the terrible secret she's hiding, before its dark currents pull them both under.

ANNOTATION

The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Sarah Byrnes was three years old, her condition became synonymous with her surname. Her face and hands were badly burned in a mysterious accident, and her father refused to allow reconstructive surgery. She developed a suit of cold, stainless steel armor to defend herself against the taunts of a world insensitive to her pain. You enter into Sarah Byrnes's world on her terms, or you don't enter.

Enter Eric Calhoune—Moby to his friends. Eric passed through his early years on a steady diet of Oreos and Twinkies and root beer floats, and he sports the girth to prove it. Because of their "terminal uglies," he and Sarah Byrnes have become true masters in the art of underhanded revenge directed at anyone who dares to offend their sensibilities.

When Eric turns out for the high school swimming team, he begins to shed layers of extra poundage. Fearing the loss of the one friendship he treasures, he gorges to "stay fat for Sarah Byrnes," who discovers his motive and threatens to beat him more senseless than she thinks he already is. Then the truth of Sarah Byrnes's horrific past finally catches up with her.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a darkly funny, suspenseful novel about friendship, fear, and making the best of a bad situation. Once again Chris Crutcher slaps us in the face with compelling questions that demand dignified answers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Such superlatives as ``riveting'' and ``powerful'' can only hint at the craftsmanship on display in this transcendent story of love, loyalty and courage. While probing such issues as friendship, free speech and moral values, Crutcher ( Chinese Handcuffs ; Stotan! ) tells a tale whose mordant humor, poignancy and suspense pack a breathtaking wallop. A social outcast in junior high due to his excessive weight, narrator Eric Calhoune found a kindred spirit in Sarah Byrnes, whose face and hands were hideously disfigured in a childhood accident. Now a senior and considerably slimmed down through competitive swimming (though still aptly called ``Moby''), Eric remains fiercely devoted to his friend, whose caustic tongue is her only protection from life's inequities. When Sarah abruptly stops talking and is committed to a mental ward, Eric is compelled to take action to help her, but quickly finds that he is in over his head. He risks their friendship by breaking his vow of secrecy and enlisting others' aid--help that comes from such unlikely quarters as a former bully, Eric's swim coach and, most surprisingly, his mother's seemingly wimpy boyfriend. A subplot centering on a self-righteous teammate drives home the point that nothing is as it appears on the surface, and leads to Eric being caught between his menacing vice-principal and the even more malevolent Mr. Byrnes--with spine-tingling results. Superb plotting, extraordinary characters and crackling narrative make this novel one to be devoured in a single unforgettable sitting. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

After years of fighting humiliation for being overweight, Eric Calhoune, alias Moby, begins swimming in high school. Moby describes his absent, overweight father, "(he's) not a guy who should have gone light on desserts and between meal snacks...(but) a guy who should have spread Glue on his lips before showing his face outside his bedroom each morning." Weight and wit have bonded him in long-term friendship with Sarah Byrnes, a girl who has faced the shame of horrible facial burn scars she's borne since the age of three. Against a swimming backdrop Crutcher places the issues of shame, narrow-mindedness, and abuse. Once the story takes hold you move along at such a rapid clip that by the end you're holding on for dear life.

The ALAN Review - Elizabeth Poe

Once again, Chris Crutcher plunges his readers into life's tough issues within a compelling story filled with human compassion. Eric Calhoun and Sarah Byrnes, social outcasts due to Eric's junk-food-fed obesity and Sarah's burn-scarred face, form a childhood friendship dedicated to heaping revenge on those who persecute them. When Eric joins the high-school swim team and begins to lose his ugly pounds, he overeats to keep himself fat so Sarah will not be alone in her misery. But he stops binging when Sarah threatens to beat him senseless. Later, Sarah loses her grit, withdraws from the world, and is hospitalized. Eric verifies his friendship by helping her deal with the physical and psychological pain she has suffered since early childhood. Crutcher handles difficult topics such as abuse, abortion, and religious rigidity with his characteristic intelligence, humor, and empathy.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 UpAn obese boy and a disfigured girl suffer the emotional scars of years of mockery at the hands of their peers. They share a hard-boiled view of the world until events in their senior year hurl them in very different directions. A story about a friendship with staying power, written with pathos and pointed humor. (Mar. 1993)

BookList - Janice Del Negro

Overweight high school student Eric Calhoun, nicknamed Moby, is Sarah Byrnes' only friend. At the age of three, Sarah's face and hands were severely burned in a domestic "accident." Her father, Virgil, refused to let her have any reconstructive surgery, and Sarah has lived her life behind a mask of scars and fury. Now, Sarah is in the hospital, in what appears to be a catatonic state. Eric goes to see her every day, talking to her and trying to get a response. When she finally answers him, it is to tell him that she has been "aware" all along. Knowing her father is dangerously unbalanced, she plans to escape from him. Eric brings in Lemry, a sympathetic teacher, as an adult ally, and the teacher and Sarah search for Sarah's mother. Virgil threatens to kill Eric unless he reveals Sarah's location, and in a climactic chase scene, he stabs Eric, who is lucky to escape with his life. Crutcher ties up loose ends and subplots a little too rosily for real life, but his book is satisfying all the same. It's strong on relationships, long on plot, and has enough humor and suspense to make it an easy booktalk with appeal across gender lines.