Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Brave Girl Eating, take one.
I just started Brave Girl Eating yesterday. I finally felt that page-turning motivation that I haven't felt with IHTSBIH. I didn't realize that Brave Girl Eating is the true story of the author, Harriet Brown, and her daughter, Kitty Brown's long and arduous ordeal with anorexia nervosa. In the prologue to the book, Harriet Brown specifically states that she purposefully did not list specific weights, BMIs, etc. She understands the significant role that numbers play to anyone who has dealt with an eating disorder. Brown does not intend for the book to be "thinspiration." Her feelings towards her daughter's sickness, and the way it tore her family apart really spoke to my emotions. I found myself with tears in my eyes even before chapter one. I can't wait to get back to my digital reader and continue!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm glad that you found a book like this to read. Your slog through IHTSBIH felt like a slog. It's great that you've found a memoir as well. It sounds like the author and her daughter will be expressing some very hard things. If you've read "Wintergirls", by Laurie Halse Anderson, you've encountered a fictitious exploration of the same issue. The fact that the author publicly states that she won't allow details into the text that some would grab onto for precisely the opposite purpose of her text. It raises questions about how a particular author's context alters some of the text. I'll encourage you to keep track of those kinds of moments and see how they end up affecting the text and your experience with it. Keep me posted.
ReplyDelete