Hunger

A Memoir of (My) Body

By: Roxane Gay

Narrated by: Roxane Gay

From the New York Times best-selling author of Bad Feminist, a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

"I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere.... I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe."

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. 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. In Hunger, she explores her past - including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life - and brings listeners along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved - in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.

©2016 Roxane Gay (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"There's no better person to narrate this audio than Roxane Gay herself. Her calm, consistent inflections are juxtaposed with the content of the audiobook.... Her narration is filled with careful intentions - as if every single word stated and not stated explains her existence spatially.... Most of all, her story is felt because content and narration explore the concept of un/control of the body, self, and existence through her voice." ( AudioFile)

Brutal and raw and honest

Any additional comments?

4.5 stars. This is a difficult, painful, excruciating read. But it is also a necessary, revealing, and enlightening read. Gay bares herself, turns her pen toward her own vulnerabilities with a raw and brutal honesty, admitting to things she finds humiliating and shameful, sharing how the most brutal event of her life has shaped her and continues to shape her. Her writing, as always, is clean and sharp and evocative. There is less of her humor here, as the subject is not funny. She does not pull punches and does not attempt to lighten the mood when she discusses the indignities her body subjects her to. She never claims her body is not her responsibility, and she never claims to love her body the way it is or that she does not wish to lose weight. But she also does not spend the entire book berating her body or ignoring that some of what she let her body become was caused by trauma in childhood. I fear many women reading this will see themselves in Gay and hear themselves in her narrative, in her hopes and fears. Especially in her relationship with her body. And it is a sad thing that so many have combative relationships with their own flesh, that many women battle their bodies (whether because of trauma inflicted or because of societal norms or in an effort to control some aspect of their lives). This book leaves me feeling a little battered and emotionally bruised, but better for having read it. Gay's introspective examination, sometimes unflinching and sometimes rightfully flinching, is well worth any reader's time.

Tough and Deeply Self-Reflective

Gay writes a memoir for the ages. Deceptively simple in its language and bold in its topics. Gay carries you deeply into her mind and traumatic history with incredible clarity, eviscerating honesty, and devastating heart. This was definitely worth the read.

Heartbreaking and beautiful

This is real. Painful insight into Roxane's story. Well worth hearing someone tell their truth and we find ours too

Thank you Roxanne Gay!

While my life experience wasn't exactly the same, Roxanne's voice has voiced so many thoughts I've carried in my head for most of my 60 yrs. Her clear and comforting voice made these words easier to hear spoken aloud. While some may think there are things in this book that are difficult to hear, I believe it only speaks to their lack of life trauma and their denial that bad things happen to children and young women. The global society needs to make bare these crimes in the light of day and perhaps then victims of these traumatic events will have the courage to seek immediate help.

Really good, despite mixed reviews

It seems like everyone who reads this book either loved it, or really did not care for it. I'm on the "loved it" side personally, but I suppose I can see why not everyone liked it. It reads as if Roxane Gay is trying to sort out what happened, why she reacted the way she did, and what the effects her attack still has on her as she writes it. Which is something I like about it, personally, because there are no easy answers about this sort of thing. There might not even be hard answers. But if you're looking for clear-cut whys and hows, this might not be the memoir for you.

#Food #TraumaSurvivors #Heartfelt #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

Wow.

So revealing. So true. Ms. Gay puts into words what you dare not say aloud, and you’re glad she did. You are not alone.

opened the door to let us see / feel

so much truth and emotion. let it open your eyes to the pain others experience and/or remind you you're not alone

AMAZING READ!

I recommend this book to all my girlfriends, especially feminists and those recovering from trauma and those struggling with weight loss. Roxane Gay is healing for the soul. I love her and I love this book so much!

Wow

I have feelings that I can't even get through right now. Just an amazing, though provoking book.

An essential read

Roxane tells her story with a beautiful honesty that is both vulnerable and real. I absolutely loved her insights, and the thoughtfulness of her way of navigating the world is quite remarkable. I definitely recommend this, and will be sharing it with friends and family, as well.