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Nothing seems gratuitous a lot seems brave. “Hunger,” like Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” interrogates the fortunes of black bodies in public spaces. We are all better for having you do so in the same ferociously honest fashion that you have written this book.” - Los Angeles Times 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 “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 gripping book, with vivid details that linger long after its pages stop. 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.įreshman Common Read: California State University: Channel Islands Critical Praise 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. I highly urge you to pick this book up.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. Now here I am being redundant, and who am I to rate anything? But seriously, I had so many feelings about this book. It's just such an honest account of her truth, which aligned so well with how I feel pretty regularly.
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I want to love myself as I am, but I'm ashamed I'm fat, then I'm ashamed for being ashamed. The feelings Gay shares were conflicted, which aligns so well with how I feel as a fat woman. The redundancy wasn't my favorite thing, which resulted in a little bit of a lower rating for me, but in all other realities, the writing was elegant and truthful. I am not here to analyze why things are written how they are written. I'm sure there's a deeper meaning to that, but I am not a literature person - I just like to read and take things as they are for the most part. The timeline jumped back and forth at times, and some pieces within the book seemed redundant. The book, which is broken down into different parts and chapters, felt more like a book of essays to me than a straight-forward memoir. And though I'm more of what she would refer to as "Lane Bryant fat," I really resonated with so many of her own insecurities. But Gay's words really truly spoke to me. So, sometimes my own personal doubts feel invalid. And in some instances, I don't feel I'm fat enough to brand myself that way - it's like I'm not fat enough to fit in with other fat folks, but I'm not average enough to be in the mid-size club, either. I am not 577 pounds fat, which Gay reveals she has been at one point. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to put some of those things into writing. There is so much heart and passion in the story, and Gay is entirely vulnerable throughout the entire book.
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But it's also about growing up, breaking free, being Black in a small town, understanding where your privilege lies and where you're underserved. Yes, this book is about being fat (which isn't a curse word - so stop being so uncomfortable when people call themselves fat, thanks). Yet, I felt like I personally wrote some of the chapters within the pages. I wish I could truly put into words how I feel about this book, but I am not that good with words. This is a different story about weight and other intersectionalities that lie within identities. I've read that one, and finished it really not feeling great about myself. This isn't a typical "I weighed 200 pounds and hated myself, so I lost the weigh and now I'm wonderfully perfect and happy" memoir. This memoir follows Gay, a queer, Black, fat feminist female, through her lifetime struggles with weight after a horrific incident she experienced as a child.