And on nearly every page, Gay’s raw, powerful prose plants a flag, facing down decades of shame and self-loathing by reclaiming the body she never should have had to lose.” - Entertainment Weekly“Bracingly vivid.
Poignantly told.” - New Republic“The book’s short, sharp chapters come alive in vivid personal anecdotes. At its best, it affords women, in particular, something so many other accounts deny them-the right to take up space they are entitled to, and to define what that means.” - Atlantic“A work of staggering honesty. –Erin Kodicek, The Amazon Book Review Review “A gripping book, with vivid details that linger long after its pages stop. And through Gay’s experience we learn one of lessons she eventually did, that “all of us have to be more considerate of the realities of the bodies of others,” and more accepting of our own. It’s a story not easily told, but the telling set her free. In her brutally honest and brave memoir Hunger, Gay recounts a childhood sexual assault that led her to purposely gain weight in order to be unseen and therefore “safe.” Gay warns at the beginning of the book that if you’re looking for a triumphant weight loss memoir, this is not it. The rest risk being in shadow, which is exactly where Roxane Gay wanted to be. For those that fit that (ever narrowing) bill, congratulations! Clothes are designed to fit you, kale growers love you, and so does society. We obsess over having too much, too little (to a lesser degree) we use terms like stealing a bite and guilty pleasure–things that evoke shame, and are meant to keep our bodies in line.
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.Ī Review An Amazon Best Book of June 2017: If you’re a woman in America, chances are, no matter your size, you probably have a somewhat fetishistic relationship with food. 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. 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. 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. 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. Louis Post-Dispatch PopSugar BookRiot Library Journal Booklist Kirkus Reviews Shelf Awareness A best book of 2017: Time NPR People Elle The Washington Post The Los Angeles Times The Chicago Tribune Newsday St.