The Edge of the Divine: Book Review

I have always believed (belief based on my observation and acquired knowledge) that emotional imbalance is the main cause of weight gain. Whether emotions make a person eat more, taking solace from food; or whether they make a person skip meals; only to eat improper food at wrong times; emotions play an important role in weight gain.

If a person goes on with this state for too long, that is years, this weight gain can reach a stage that’s called morbidly obese.

By definition, the safe/healthy weight for an average person is his/her height in centimeters minus 100. So a person with height 175 centimeters; should not allow his/her weight above 75 kgs. Above this healthy weight, any kilogram added will be considered overweight. By definition a weight 20 percent more of the ideal weight, makes a person obese. So for the person with 75 kgs as ideal weight, a weight above 90 kilograms will make him/her obese. When a person becomes 50-100 percent above one's ideal body weight, or 100 pounds or 45 kilograms above one's ideal body weight, then he/she is called morbidly obese. For our supposed 75 kilograms ideal weight person, this stage will come when his/her weigh comes in the range of 112.5 to 150 kilograms.

Now, some will think that getting to the morbidly obese state is not very easy; but it has been seen that people reach this stage earlier than they assume: The reason being, all the things that keep happening around their lives, make them blind towards their body; until the body starts to crumble under its own weight and day to day tasks become difficult.

Grammy Award winning Vocalist, Sandi Patty’s new book The Edge of the Divine, tries to convey similar sentiments -- emotions taking her to morbidly obese state, how she was compelled to go for surgical intervention (Lap Band Surgery) and how her faith in God with her family support helped her tide over the initial indecisiveness wrt Lap Band surgery.

The book is an easy read and among other things, narrates how the author went ahead with the surgery, culled her eating instincts and eventually got a body many pounds lighter. But the book fails to impress.

To be frank, I can recommend this book to anyone who has great faith in God, is a celebrity, has serious eating disorders and who has to go for surgical intervention for his/her morbidly obese state; but I would not recommend it to anyone who does not have the above attributes.

The Edge of the Divine is no doubt an easy read; but it fails to address the issues an average woman faces in her day to day life; that leads her to obesity. As happens with most celebrity authors, Sandi’s book seems disconnected with the life of an average woman. The book talks about adultery, failed marriages, second marriage, faith in God, one nice big family comprising of kids from past marriages of both partners ,big house, expensive ring, sacrifices and so many stray incidents and lives; but it all looks very mushy.

The book tries to be close to ordinary people, by talking about college going kids, moving to a new place etc., but fails to narrow down the gap between average people and a celebrity. This leading to situations, where Sandi’s sacrifices (that is how she feels about her certain acts) appear selfish to an average reader.

Rating: 2/5, Not Recommended.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”