Tommy Tomlinson is the author of The Elephant in the Room, a memoir about being overweight in America. He’s the host of the podcast SouthBound in partnership with WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR station. He has written for publications including Esquire, ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Garden & Gun, and many others. He spent twenty-three years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer, where he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. His stories have been chosen twice for the Best American Sports Writing series (2012 and 2015) and he also appears in the anthology America’s Best Newspaper Writing. He teaches magazine writing at Wake Forest University and has taught at colleges, workshops, and conferences across the country. He also has a Substack called The Writing Shed. Tommy and his wife, Alix Felsing, live in Charlotte with Alix’s mom and a cat.
“Inspirational . . . I loved this book. I found myself
sneak-reading it from the moment it came in the door. As with a
sack of White Castle burgers, I hated to reach the end. . . .
[Tomlinson] writes exceedingly well. . . . His clean and witty and
punchy sentences, his smarts and his middle-class sensibility made
me yearn for the kind of down-to-earth columnist I often read in
the 1980s and 1990s but barely seems to exist any longer.”
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Powerful . . . A funny and moving account of what life is like for
someone who carries extra weight.”
—Garden & Gun
“The Elephant in the Room . . . is for anyone who’s struggled with
their weight, who’s struggled with addiction, or for the people who
love them.”
—Salisbury Post
“This book deserves all the rave reviews that are pouring in. It’s
funny and poignant and life-affirming. . . . An acclaimed
journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tomlinson can write like
nobody’s business.”
—Traverse City Record Eagle
“Add this to your reading list ASAP.”
—Charlotte Magazine
“The Elephant in the Room is more than a memoir of an
ever-supersizing America. It’s a love story. It’s also a whipsmart
history of working-class America, where the fast-food line is long
and a weary mother’s love is shown in third helpings of cornbread
and butter beans. Tommy Tomlinson’s singular voice—of journalist,
Southerner, son, and of a husband who knows how lucky he is—is at
turns punchy and poetic, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud, and full
of language so authentically fresh it needs no sell-by date. I
could not turn the pages fast enough.”
—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick
“I just read a wonderful book: The Elephant in the Room by Tommy
Tomlinson. It’s about his extreme weight struggles and also about
family, marriage, class, journalism, the South, and food. It’s warm
and funny and honest and painful and poignant. I found it genuinely
unputdownable.”
—Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep and American Wife, on
Twitter
“What a gift Tomlinson has. To take a subject this difficult, this
personal, this, well, enormous, and to somehow make it read like a
summer cliffhanger, but with depth, feeling, and huge moments of
catharsis, is an amazing achievement. It’s also a kindhearted book,
generous, empathetic, and funny just when you need it to be.”
—Brian Koppelman, co-writer of Rounders and co-creator
and showrunner of Billions
“A revealing memoir . . . After topping out at 460 pounds and
seeing a doctor’s diagnosis of ‘morbidly obese,’ Tomlinson knew he
needed to change before the ‘morbid’ part became reality. He
doesn’t hold back in his comments about his needs and wants and
interjects enough humor to offset the more serious parts of the
narrative and keep the pages turning. Readers who are overweight
will find encouragement in Tomlinson’s story, which serves as proof
that with determination and the right attitude, anyone can win the
battle over food addiction and/or obesity. An authentic look at a
struggle that millions of Americans face every day.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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