Showing posts with label compulsive eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label compulsive eating. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Hunger

Hunger: a Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay  306 pp.

This book was a hard one for me because so much of it hit home and not in a good way. The author tells the brutally honest story of being gang raped as a child and then eating herself into obesity in hopes of making herself into someone no one would hurt like that again. Instead she faces other hurts and insults because of her size. There is much about her relationship with food. She also details all the ways in which society and even her own family does not know how to deal with large/obese people whether it's in the attitude that fat people are lazy (At age 43, Gay has multiple degrees, teaches at colleges, and has written several books among other things -- hardly a lazy woman.), chairs that don't fit, airplane travel, or the medical profession that looks at people's weight before their symptoms of illness/injury. I found myself saying "OMG, yes" to so much of what she said. This book was blogged earlier by Patrick and Christa.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Hunger

Hunger: a memoir of (my) body / Roxane Gay, 307 pgs. read by Roxane Gay

Gay has written a painful memoir of being morbidly obese that details what it is like to live in a world where fat people are shamed every day.  She tells of the traumatic event that damaged her and made her want to be large to protect herself from similar attacks.  She tells of the emotional damage and the desire to disappear that has lasted 30 years.  This is a painful book to read/listen to. There are many parts that you can relate with and some you hope you will never be able to relate to.  Gay is still amazing and I can't imagine how difficult it was to write this book.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Born Round

Born Round: the secret history of a full time eater/Frank Bruni 354 pgs.

Well this guy has tried at all. I'm talking about unhealthy weight loss schemes. Bulimia, fad diets, fasting, speed, none of that worked but somehow, after becoming the NY Times restaurant critic, he learned to control his portions and exercise regularly. This book had too much navel gazing for me but it is a hopeful tale about how we can change no matter our age. - Christa