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Big Girl
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Big Girl (2010) (edit title/settings)

by Danielle Steel (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

In this heartfelt and incisive new novel, Danielle Steel celebrates the virtues of unconventional beauty while exploring deeply resonant issues of weight, self-image, sisterhood, and family.

A chubby little girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and ordinary looks, Victoria Dawson has always... read more

Summary edit see section history

Big Girl starts out with a couple, Jim and Christine, who get married at an early age. From the beginning, their morals are dubious. Jim really wants them to have a baby boy- Christine also wants a boy, but only because her husband does. They try but end up having a girl . Born to a... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Big Girl starts out with a couple, Jim and Christine, who get married at an early age. From the beginning, their morals are dubious. Jim really wants them to have a baby boy- Christine also wants a boy, but only because her husband does. They try but end up having a girl . Born to a narcisistic father who is obsessed with looks and money, and a food- and- fitness obsessed house- wife who plays Bridge, and who seems to exist to agree with her husband, both parents are disappointed in their baby girl from the moment she is born. They name her Victoria, for Queen Victoria- not because, as Victoria believed as a child, she was a Queen in her fathers eyes, but because the picture Victoria saw of her namesake depicted a 'fat and ugly old woman, who resembled one of the dogs she posed with.' As she grows older, Victoria resembles not her dark eyed, dark haired parents, but is referred to as a 'genetic throwback' to Jims great- grandmother, known for her overweight, matronly figure, fair looks and 'large nose'. Constantly bullied by her parents about her weight, everything changes for Victoria at seven years old when her mother has another baby- another girl they name Grace, whom Victoria calls 'Gracie'. Despite the obvious favouritism and constant remarks of praise and adoration her younger sister receives, Victoria shows no jealousy and is obsessed with doing everything for her sister the moment she is born. As the girls grow up and Victoria and Gracie get older, their love for each other is stronger than ever, despite the constant remarks their parents make about Victoria's weight, her chosen career as a teacher and lack of a husband or boyfriend.

Victoria moves to New York and gets a job at a prestigious school, though her parents still criticize her. There she gains few friends, but they are good friends, and she tries a few tentivite relationsships, all of which fail and which she blames on her being 'too fat, too clever and unloveable', parrotting her parents' beliefs. She sees a psychiatrist, and works through some of her problems but always returns to eating when upset. When Victoria finds out her sister, who is barely as old as her parents were when they married, is engaged to a rich, controlling fiance, Victoria begins to worry her younger sister will turn into her parents...

Again a girl. Big Girl is a book explaining the life of Victoria and her relationships with both her parents and younger sister.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Gracie: Victoria's younger, perfect sister. She is everything her parents wanted.
  • Collin: Victoria's boyfriend. She sees her as perfect.
  • Harry: Grace's rich fiance.
  • John: Victoria's room mate in New York.
  • Christine: Victoria and Gracie's mother.
  • Harlan: One of Victoria's room mates.
  • Victoria: Main character of the book. She was born a "big girl". She is hated and ridiculed by her parents. She helps raise her baby sister before moving away to school in Chicago. She then gets a teaching job at an illustrious private school in New York. Struggles with her size throughout the entire book.
  • Jim: Grace and Victoria's father. Epitome of a narcissist. He is ruthless and cruel to Victoria but kind and loving to Gracie.
  • Helen: One of Victoria's co-workers at the school in New York.
  • Jack Bailey: one of Victoria's co-workers.
  • Dr. Watson: Victoria's psychiatrist.
  • Bunny: Victoria's room mate.
  • Carla: Co-worker of Victoria.
  • Mother Dawson: Jim's mother. Helped ridicule Victoria as a child.
Show all 14 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “I guess I’m just some weird throwback to another generation, like Dad’s grandmother or whoever.”
    Victoria
  • “It was rejection exquisitely packaged, but rejection nonetheless.”
    Victoria
  • “But difficult home lives were not exclusive to the very rich, nor the poor.”
    Victoria
  • “People get paid five million bucks for hitting a baseball out of the park. But educating youngpeople isn’t worth a damn thing to anyone, except to us.”
    Jack
  • “He hadn’t had the tough childhood she’d had, but he had had a hard road for fourteen years and she could see it in his eyes,that terrible feeling that you’re not good enough to be loved by the people you love most, and eventually by anyone else.”
    Victoria
  • “She was the freedom fighter taking a stand for the truths no one wanted to hear.”
    Victoria
  • ““People want different things and not always what we think they should have, or want for them.””
    Collin
  • ““People are so obsessed with that these days. As long as you’re healthy, what difference do a few pounds make? Crazy diets. Thirteen-year-old girls on magazine covers who wind up in hospitals because they’re so anorexic. Real women don’t look like that. And who wants them to? No one wants a woman who looks sick or like she’s been liberated from a refugee camp. All through history, women are supposed to look like you,””
    Collin
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • terrible feeling that you’re not good enough to be loved by the people you love most, and eventually by anyone else.
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • Contents Other Books by this Author Title Page Dedication Chapter 1
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • the Danielle Steel Web Site at www.daniellesteel.com
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • A man who really likes you and cares about you won’t care about your weight one way or another.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • looks, her friends or lack of them, her weight was their main focus, along with
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • Rubenesque, and she didn’t dare ask him what it meant, and didn’t want to know. She was sure it was just a more artistic way of calling her big, which was a term she had come
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • She was a beautiful woman. She always had been. She just didn’t know it, and now she did. And as she looked up at him, she knew just how much she was loved.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • “That’s what they call dating, Victoria. A guy asks you out.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • Together they were more than they each were alone. They didn’t take away from each other, they added all that they were.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • Book design by Virginia Norey v3.0
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Show all 18 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

Jim Dawson was handsome from the day he was born.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Danielle Steel (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Country: United States
Publication Date: February 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0385343183
Page Count: 336

Classification edit see section history

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