Annie and Kelly represent another end of the continuum. Where the middle-aged Marg and Jeremy have initially brought into the Gospel According to Reverend Earl, the two young girls attempt to assert their freedom by diverging from the body ideal as far as possible. The catch, of course, lies in the fact that both girls, if they continue unchecked, will ultimately kill themselves. While we root for them both to escape the decidedly unfriendly clutches of the sanctimonious Sisters, we also recognize the self-destructive impulses within them. As a satirist, Reed refuses to indulge in easy dichotomies - which is apt when considering the barrage of mixed messages within dietland.

Much of the plot of Thinner Than Thou concerns itself with Annie and Kelly's attempts to flee the Dedicated Sisters' convent/compound - along with Marg and the Abercrombie siblings' quest to find and rescue the imprisoned anorexic. Some of the plot mechanics designed to bring the full cast together are a bit rickety, but they also yield some marvelous moments. A scene where an army of disgruntled fat people marches on Sylphania, for instance, is wonderfully described (even as it conjures images from an old Judge Dredd comic), culminating in an angrily elegant declaration of the right to be fat. When the Reverend Earl turns out to be nursing a secret that runs counter to his public persona, it's no surprise to the reader, but it's consistent with Reed's view of the way consumer culture sells fatness and thinness to the exact same clients.

Just this week on television, I couldn't help noticing the new summer ad blitz for Taco Bell: a series of commercials featuring inexplicably thin couples happily shouting, "I'm full!" to their beaming friends and family. The Bell is attempting to fill the space that's been left now that MacDonald's has yielded to recent public pressure and ceased offering Full Meal Deals to the public, I realized. Consumer culture abhors a vacuum. And in the too-close-for-comfort world of Thinner Than Thou, you just know Earl Sharpnack would own controlling stock in both companies. . .