Reviewing this book to me is similar to how some feel about reviewing poetry, how some prose is so deeply personal I wouldn’t even know what to say.
With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved-in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes. In Hunger, she explores her own past-including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life-and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself. 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 her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.” I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. “ I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. Synopsis: From the bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself I am always holding on to the hope of tomorrow.Source: Local Library & Libby/Overdrive Ebook & Audiobook App I think, Tomorrow, I will make good choices. As I fall asleep, my stomach churning, the acids making my heartburn flare, I think about the next day. Whatever happens next doesn’t matter, so I binge and eat even more of whatever I want. I haven’t made any of the good choices I intended to make when the day began. Or I wait until dinner and then the day is nearly done and I can eat whatever I want, I tell myself, because I have not eaten all day.Īt night, I have to face myself and all the ways I have failed.
And it’s fine, I tell myself, because I haven’t eaten all day. Sometimes, I eat lunch-a sandwich from Subway or Jimmy John’s.
I don’t eat breakfast because I’m not hungry or I don’t have time or there is no food in the house, which are all excuses for not being willing to take proper care of myself. Often, I rush to get ready and begin my day because I am not a morning person and I hit snooze on my alarm several times. Before the day starts, I am fully prepared to tackle the problem of my body, to be better than I have been. During these moments, I think, Today, I will make good choices.
Every morning, I wake up and have a few minutes where I am free from my body and my failings. I start each day with the best of intentions for living a better, healthier life.