I should have read and posted about The Weight of Him by Ethel Rohan long ago – it was a review copy that I was selected to read by St. Martin’s Press. It fell to the bottom of my stack and I only realized this week that the book was being published on Tuesday. So, here’s my belated review. Billy Brennan loves food. So much so, that he weighs more than 400 pounds. After his oldest son commits suicide, he goes on a campaign to be sponsored to lose weight, the proceeds going to preventing suicide. This book, while hopeful in some ways, is very sad and depressing in others. It reminded me of Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, and Big Brother, by Lionel Shriver, which I started and didn’t finish. So, in reading, I kept feeling like I had read the story before. This feeling of Deja Vu, coupled with the overwhelming feeling of depression, made The Weight of Him not my favorite. However, in wanting to see what happened to Billy, I did finish and overall, it was an interesting story with a hopeful ending.