looking for story about dangerous diet (monkey on back)

[ctr reader]

I read a short story about 15-18 years ago about an obese man who runs into a formerly obese friend, now miraculously thin. The friend doesn't want to give the guy information about how he's lost the weight, but the man pries it out of him. He goes to this weird office where all these strange looking creatures are working, and they place a small monkey on the man's back. The monkey is invisible to everyone else. Any time the man sits down to eat, the monkey snatches the food from his mouth, and the man begins to shrink as the monkey grows larger and larger.

The story was in an anthology at my local branch library growing up in Miami. I'm pretty sure most of their collection was lost in Hurricane Andrew. I can remember so many details (but not the important ones, like the title or author... ) One of the most memorable stories I've ever read, and I'd like to dig it up again and see if it is as good as I thought at the time. I've been trying to google things like "monkey diet" but it just pulls up websites about primates' eating habits.

Thanks for reading...

 

[williamjm]

The story you are looking for is The Monkey Treatment by George R.R. Martin, it is available in his collection GRRM : A RRetrospective (retitled Dreamsongs in the UK)

As you say, it is a very memorable story.

 

[ctr reader]

Fantastic! Thank you so much.

Chelsea