She describes turning to food as she became more withdrawn from her family. This is hard to read as she talks of her efforts to hide who she had become and what had happened from her parents. Gay expands on that in the second section of Hunger, including describing her rape and its impact on her behaviour and attitude. I am tracing the story of my body from when I was a carefree young girl who could trust her body, and who felt safe in her body, to the moment when that safety was destroyed, to the aftermath that continues even as I try to undo so much of what was done to me. She explains why she is writing her story: She reflects how people saw her body before they even considered who she was, and outlines the humiliation of BMI and the measurement for morbidly obese people. She tells of attending a weight-loss session with her father while she was in her 20s, and observing that the other overweight woman in the session was there because it suited her husband. She asks if we need to know her weight in order to know her story. What you need to know is that my life is split in two, cleaved not so neatly. Those who know Roxane Gay will realise that she is referring to her rape at the age of 12: The memoir is divided into seven sections, and we begin with Gay asserting that her life has a before and an after. Yet Hunger is also a joyous read and provides insight into an intellectual mind, as well as the story of her supportive family and her efforts to find love. She lets us into her worst thoughts and her less appealing traits. She breaks down her history and reveals much in her effort to seek the truth and convey the lessons she has learned. Although the deft, sparse writing is compelling, it is necessary to stop, digest, and process throughout the book.Īs Gay tells the story of her body and her relationship with it, the book can feel like a dialogue between author and reader. That she can find humour or hope in the most diabolical predicament is what elevates this raw and at times painful memoir. Roxane Gay has a gift for observation and the ability to articulate her thoughts into beautiful writing, no matter how ghastly the revelation.
The gruelling honesty and intense focus of Hunger invite self-reflection in the reader. But she gave her readers a chance to understand ways we could do better in the fight of size discrimination.ROXANE GAY Hunger. I am enraged by her past and the horrible things done to her. It's not the kind of book you finish with an air of joy and happiness. I am thankful for the opportunity to have read this book and would recommend it. I don't want to say I enjoyed it- because I didn't. Of course, I believe that she should be able to have anything she wants, but I know it is not that simple. She would say that she has spent the past 20 years hungering for all the things she cannot have. How she craved a certain kind of love, how she craved a certain type of food, how she craved a certain type of pain. She kept coming back to that, over and over. But that honesty comes at the price of her pain. She is an impressive writer, her words so honest, they sometimes sting.
Gay has spent the last 20 years being fat, and she is done having her size dictate her worth. It's like watching someone covered in bandaids rip them all off over and over again. Now that I've read it, when she says she didn't want to write it, it makes perfect sense.
The book was delayed and at the time it seemed like a thing that happens. I wasn't prepared for the revelations, which made for a challenging read.
More than anything, this is a book of confessions.