Jennifer Hudson memoir a little thin in spots

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The singer opens Weight Watchers Jennifer Hudson Center in Chicago. (CP)

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If you were expecting a tell-all memoir from Oscar-winning actress and Grammy-winning singer Jennifer Hudson, her first book won't satisfy you.

On the other hand, if you're looking for an inspirational story about living your dreams and losing weight, too, this is the book for you.

Hudson, 30, makes only brief reference to the most devastating tragedy in her life in which her mother, brother and nephew were killed in 2008. Her estranged brother-in-law is accused and goes on trial this spring.

Otherwise, Hudson's well-publicized journey down memory lane is upbeat and focused on her ascent to stardom and on her transformational 80-pound weight loss.

This is another strongly commercial endorsement of Weight Watchers -- complete with Hudson family members' personal stories of their success on the program and her own favourite low-calorie recipes.

A more accurate subtitle for the book might be Jennifer Hudson and her Family Share Their Weight Watchers Triumphs. (She reveals that 75 of her relatives have gone on the program and collectively lost more than 2,000 pounds.)

This fact is not surprising, since the Chicago-born former American Idol contestant is the current spokeswoman for Weight Watchers. That's the reason a good portion of the book could easily be labelled a paid advertisement for the diet program.

However, it would have been more interesting and inspiring to read more in-depth details of Hudson's own life and how she overcame her personal family tragedy than to read about her relatives' WW experiences. One can only hope that story will be the topic of her next publication.

One of the book's best quotes is featured on the back cover. Hudson states that early in her career, one of the musical directors from American Idol when Hudson was on the show in 2004 told her that "everything about me was too big. She said my voice was too big, my size was too big, and my personality was too big."

Hudson replied, "Stars are larger than life!"

In Hudson's case, she struggled with her waist size until hired by Weight Watchers in 2010. She's come a long way from her days as a singing drive through-window employee at Burger King.

Hudson, now the engaged mother of a 21/2-year-old son, admits that her career in Hollywood was judged first on her appearance.

She endured much criticism for being overweight, and now, since she's lost 80 pounds, she's enduring criticism for being too thin and for selling out to show business's pressure to be waif-like.

Ironically, for her 2007 Oscar-winning turn as Effie White in Dreamgirls, Hudson had to gain weight -- but she also gained career immortality.

Hudson credits Oprah ("Mama O," as she calls her) for being a cherished friend and mentor and calls Whitney Houston her idol and greatest musical influence. Hudson sang a tribute to Houston at the Grammy Awards show last Sunday, the day after Houston was found dead in her hotel room.

Hudson's book features a straight-forward style of writing that engages the reader, despite its far-too-lengthy commercial endorsement of Weight Watchers.

But if you're looking for good reasons and good strategies to lose weight, you will find them here.

Brenlee Carrington, a Winnipeg lawyer and mediator, is the Law Society of Manitoba's equity ombudswoman.

I Got This

How I Changed My Ways

and Lost What Weighed Me Down

By Jennifer Hudson

Dutton, 244 pages, $27.50

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 18, 2012 J9