Perfect: A Novel

Perfect is a children's novel by American author Natasha Friend, first published in 2004 by Milkweed Editions. Perfect won the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature in 2004. This book is about a young girl's struggle with the disease Bulimia nervosa.

Plot summary

Isabelle Lee is a 13-year-old girl whose world is turned upside down by the death of her father. Isabelle's life seemed somewhat perfect before her father's death, but that soon changed. Her mother, previously a full-time English professor, started working part-time and spending the rest of that time in bed complaining of being tired. She was suffering with depression over her husband's death. Isabelle also had trouble coping with her father's death: she dealt with it by binge eating and purging — eating away her emotions and then throwing them up, an eating disorder known as bulimia. This new habit was discovered by her little sister April, who told their mother.

In the next part of the book, Isabelle is forced to go to group psychotherapy by her mother in hopes that she will stop this horrible habit. At first Isabelle is completely against talking to strangers about her problems; but she realizes that the most popular, pretty, rich, smart, and nice girl in school, Ashley Barnum, faces the same problems she does. They soon become friends and eat huge amounts of food before throwing up together at sleepovers. Isabelle begins to hang out with the "cool" kids at school, leaving her old friends behind. One night at a sleepover, Isabelle finds footnotes for the current book they are reading in English class and realizes that Ashley cheats to get good grades and appear smart.

Isabelle begins to see the shrink who is in charge of group alone once a week and tells her about her relationship with Ashley — while disguising Ashley with the code name "Penelope". One day Ashley does not come to school and Isabelle sits with her old friends, despite them being annoyed with her for leaving them. That night Ashley spends the night at Isabelle's house for the first time and reveals her parents are getting divorced, the reason she was absent from school that day. Ashley and Isabelle begin to binge again, but Isabelle stops and decides not to throw up with her friend this time. Isabelle soon realizes that group has helped her not only cope with her father's death but make friends with one of the most popular girls at school. Isabelle realizes towards the end that the once strangers in group are just people like her, who are suffering with an eating disorder because they simply cannot cope.

By the end of the book, Isabelle has gone 35 hours and counting without throwing up, has become friends with Ashley Barnum, and has gotten her mother back in her life.

Themes

Coping

Isabelle had developed the eating disorder of bulimia nervosa due to her problems with coping. Her father had died two years prior to her eating disorder. Isabelle felt as if she could not deal or cope with her father’s death. This was due to the fact that she felt as if she did not have the full support of her mother because her mom stayed in her bed depressed. Problems coping with death or things that are stressful are linked as onsets to eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa in Isabelle’s case.^[1] Her eating disorder was the only way she felt as if she could control what was taking place in her life, since she could not control the death of her father.

Loneliness

Isabelle experienced the feeling of loneliness especially after her father's death. She did not necessarily feel accepted by others at her school especially by the popular girls and the guys in her classes. This made her experience loneliness in a social aspect of her life not including the loneliness she felt within her own home. Isabelle felt as if she was by herself when it came to dealing with her father's death because her mother never wanted to talk about the death. This lack of communication within Isabelle's family had a lot to do with the fact that she reached out to binge eating as a source of comfort during her times of struggle.^[2] Many people who experience eating disorders whether it be anorexia or bulimia nervosa have dealt with feeling lonely within social situations.^[3]

Early trauma

Isabelle was trying to cope with her father's death in the wrong way by binge eating. Her father's death was a very traumatic thing that happened in her life. Therefore, she was not prepared to deal with this traumatic experience so she turned to the comfort of binging and purging. Early trauma experiences such as death, illnesses, and rape have all been linked to the formation of eating disorders in teens and young adults. Not only can these traumatic events be the cause of eating disorders in the future, but they can wait and show up in an individual's middle to late adulthood.^[4]

Awards/Achievements

• Isinglass Teen Book Award, 2008
• Golden Sower Award, 2007
• Black-Eyed Susan Award nominee, 2007–2008
• Book Sense Pick, 2005
• Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, 2004

References