Hunger (memoir)

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
Author Roxane Gay
Language English
Subject Weight, sexuality, trauma
Genre Memoir
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
 June 13, 2017
Pages 320
ISBN 978-0-06-236259-9
Website Hunger at HarperCollins

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body is a 2017 memoir by Roxane Gay.

Development and publication history

Gay has described Hunger as "by far the hardest book I've ever had to write."[1]

Hunger was published on June 13, 2017 by HarperCollins.

Content

In Hunger, Gay describes her experience of her body and her relationship to food and weight, particularly in the aftermath of being gang-raped at 12 years old. Reviewing the book in The Atlantic, Adrienne Green wrote, "The story of Roxane Gay’s body did not begin with this violation of her innocence, but it was the fracture that would come to define her relationship with food, desire, and denial for decades."[2] Gay gained weight in the wake of her trauma, as both a means of comfort and of protecting herself from the world, and describes the book as being about "living in the world when you are three or four hundred pounds overweight, when you are not obese or morbidly obese but super morbidly obese."[3]

In Vox, Constance Grady described Hunger as "an intimate and vulnerable memoir, one that takes its readers into dark and uncomfortable places. Gay examines wells of trauma and horror, not sparing her own self-loathing from her forthright analytic eye. But all the while, she insists on her right to be treated with dignity."[4]

Reception

Hunger was widely and favorably reviewed.[5][6][7][8] In the Los Angeles Times, Rebecca Carroll described the book as "a bracingly vivid account of how intellect, emotion and physicality speak to each other and work in tireless tandem to not just survive unspeakable hurt, but to create a life worth living and celebrating."[5] In USA Today, Charisse Jones gave the book three and a half of four stars, saying Gay's "spare prose, written with a raw grace, heightens the emotional resonance of her story, making each observation sharper, each revelation more riveting, and also sometimes difficult to bear."[9] At the same time, Kirkus Reviews writes Gay is "just as engaging when discussing her bisexuality and her adoration for Ina Garten, who taught her 'that a woman can be plump and pleasant and absolutely in love with food.'"[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Meltzer, Marisa (2017-06-14). "Roxane Gay's New Memoir About Her Weight May Be Her Most Feminist—and Revealing—Act Yet". ELLE. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  2. ↑ Green, Adrienne (June 13, 2017). "Roxane Gay's 'Hunger' Is a Searing Memoir About Weight and Trauma". The Atlantic. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  3. ↑ Gay, Roxane (2017). Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062362605. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  4. ↑ Grady, Constance (June 15, 2017). "Roxane Gay’s new memoir, Hunger, is intimate, vulnerable, and radical". Vox. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  5. 1 2 Carroll, Rebecca (2017-06-08). "'Hunger,' Roxane Gay's striking memoir of food, trauma and the body, is ferociously honest". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  6. ↑ Gibson, Caitlin (2017-06-10). "Roxane Gay decided to write about being overweight. It took her to some painful places.". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  7. ↑ Greenblatt, Leah (2017-06-08). "'Hunger' by Roxane Gay". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  8. ↑ Higgins, Jim (June 9, 2017). "In brave memoir 'Hunger,' Roxane Gay illuminates struggles with eating and her body". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  9. ↑ Jones, Charisse (June 12, 2017). "In Roxane Gay's powerful 'Hunger,' a craving for acceptance". USA TODAY. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "HUNGER by Roxane Gay". Kirkus Reviews. May 2, 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.