Hunger

"Roxane Gay is a brilliant writer. The way she’s able to express herself and her vulnerabilities in such an open and honest way is something I hope I was able to imitate in my work. But it’s a perspective on body that every young woman should read. So much culturally for women is tied up in our bodies: our worth, our sexuality. Culturally, we’ve been told that if our body isn’t a certain way, then you don’t have value. That’s an idea Roxane Gay—more eloquently than anyone—challenges and breaks down with humour and vulnerability. Absolutely. Someone actually asked me a question the other day that I had to stop and think about. I had binge-eating disorder, but I lost the weight when I learned to curtail that behaviour. Someone asked: ‘Do you think that you could’ve written about this if you weren’t down to a societally acceptable weight?’ And I thought, I don’t know if I could have! I don’t know if I would have been brave enough to write about this if the problem was still ongoing and I didn’t fit a certain culturally accepted ‘look.’ That was just something I needed to stop and say, because I’m scared and I’m still vulnerable. All the things that I was ashamed of when I suffered from binge-eating disorder without telling anyone—that shame is still somewhere inside. Women are taught this shame from an early age. So, Roxane Gay’s writing and her acceptance of her body is something all women should learn from and emulate. That’s one way to look at it. But it’s also good to look at it as an opportunity: here’s the time where you can figure it out. Fortunately, food doesn’t have to be something you suffer from for the rest of your life. It can be something you’re able to get a hold of and embrace in a positive way. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter If you can make peace with your body in your twenties, that will set you up for a much happier thirties and forties. It’s still something I’m working on, but I know I wouldn’t have been able to write about it as openly and honestly as I did if there weren’t people like Roxane Gay teaching me how to do it. It has been incredibly gratifying, heartbreaking and heart-opening to hear how many girls—and boys—have suffered and haven’t been able to talk about it. Especially binge-eating disorder, which is so stigmatised and shamed, and seen as so embarrassing. I feel incredibly grateful for the people who are able to reach out to me and tell me that my words helped them in any way. These are issues that when light is shined on them, they become less shameful. I recognise myself, but I wouldn’t make those same decisions today, I think. There are aspects of myself, obviously, that have carried through, but at times I just want to give my past self a hug. I was really insecure and lonely a lot of the time, and I wish my past self could have read this book and realised that things will turn out okay."

"Roxane Gay’s highly anticipated memoir chronicles her relationship with her body, her ongoing struggle with weight and a rape that left her reeling for decades, which she revisits several times throughout the book. Gay lingers on some of her life’s most painful moments to give voice to our collective grief and fury at the trauma we feel when something is taken from us."

"It's a tossup between Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier" and Roxane Gay's "Hunger.""

"Honest, painful, smart, transparent, authentic. It was everything. It took me to school, shifted me. Also, I so admire this level of bravery."

"I read Gay’s memoir in two days, and I stopped everything to read it, because her story meant so much to me. I’d had a very bad eating disorder in college, and her story made so much sense intellectually. Gay is one of America’s great writers, and I was astonished and grateful to learn how our bodies hold our histories and how our minds have the power to release them. This book is important and beautiful."