herseriallife
Written on Jun 21, 2021
'I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.'
New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as "wildly undisciplined," Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties-including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life-and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life.
With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn't yet been told but needs to be.
- ISBN10 0062362593
- ISBN13 9780062362599
- Publish Date 13 June 2017
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Collins
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English
Reviews
Amber (The Literary Phoenix)
Written on Aug 16, 2019
Okay. So. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Hunger. In fact, it’s a very raw, honest memoir about a topic that is so deeply personal. The stories Roxane Gay shares are intense and difficult to read. You’re not supposed to love this book, but you are supposed to respect and support it.
I still didn’t like it. And not in that “this makes me uncomfortable, so I dislike it” way. It’s the writing style. Roxane Gay tells her stories in such a way that unapologetically calls out the types of things that cause shame to people like herself (which is good) and describes the ways her body makes her feel like she’s trapped in a cage. Her writing style includes a lot of repetition. This is bound to happen in a 300 page book that talks about only one topic. She tells the same stories in different settings.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with this. Her writing style is fine and the points she makes are incredibly important. But as a book this didn’t work for me. There’s nothing wrong with the book. There’s lots of things are right about the book. But we weren’t a match. And that should be okay, right? But when it’s a well-loved book, and it’s about so potent and important a topic, and when it’s a memoir, it’s difficult to say I didn’t enjoy it. The only thing that kept me from DNF-ing this was the hope that the next essay would rope me in. Or the next one. Or the next one.
Roxane talks about her relationship with her body. She discusses the events that adjusted that relationship. She is vulnerable and open regarding the way she is treated and the challenges she has to overcome in order to experience the fullness of life so many of us take for granted. All in all, it’s a very powerful memoir that reminded me to acknowledge my privileged. It’s so easy to get sucked into our own lives that we forget how easy we have things, in regards to so many details – gender, race, class, religion, weight. It’s so important to have books like Hunger out there in the universe to perpetuate change.
If you are already a fan of Roxane Gay’s writing or enjoy powerfully moving memoirs, I cannot recommend this enough and please don’t let my own experience dissuade you. Hunger screams to the universe of our own prejudices and shares a unique story that will make you sad, and will make you angry in all the ways that matter.
Ace
Written on Jan 15, 2019
I was anxious about what the book would bring to the surface when I read it. Despite being anxious, I pushed myself to pick it up and start and while it struck a chord with me in many places, I’m so so glad that I decided to go ahead and read it.
Gay talks about how after an event as a child she turned to food as solace in order to provide the satisfaction that she needed in life especially instant satisfaction. As someone who eats for that feeling, I empathised with her so much, though our reasons for doing so are entirely different.
The level of brutal honesty in this book is astounding. Despite all the punches to the gut I experienced throughout it, I couldn’t put it down. She has gone through so much and to come through it and grow as a person is amazing. The relationships with other people that she experienced who wanted to lose weight for various reasons was something that struck another chord with me. As she says, the world is fixated on the fact that you have to be skinny to be happy which isn’t the case. We might have reacted slightly differently to that advice but what they made us feel was the same.
It isn’t just fat shaming and fat culture that Gay touches on by also rape culture and racism and the reasons why she stayed quiet for so long. She didn’t think she’d be believed. Looking at the media today, I don’t blame her at all and I can’t even imagine what it was like back then when it happened.
While it is obvious that she is quite possibly still suffering from PTSD which is what turned her to food in the first place as well as other coping methods that could be considered self harm, she also made it clear that she has come a long way compared to where she used to be.
The level of honesty both about her life, her body and what happened too but also about how the world views her and other people who are obese, was intense. I’ve put off writing this review for about a week because I can’t do the book justice.
empressbrooke
Written on Jul 7, 2017