Yeah, you don't remember him much because he was mostly boring. He had some decent chapters, but for the most part his chapters seem to be spectating someone or something more important, like when you see Mormont die through his POV or when he introduces Bran to Coldhands (who is a character cut from the show, so don't get panicky with the spoilers).
On the show, he's actually a great character. He's a guy you root for because, while he's not the hero, he's also not completely fucking incompetent. He had some of the high points of last night's episode, which is a sequence he didn't even appear in in the books.
And to be fair, the show character is already skinnier than the book character, but Martin has a habit of going super overboard with the descriptions of his fat characters to the point that they are just absolutely ridiculous.