“The book’s short, sharp chapters come alive in vivid personal anecdotes. At its best, it affords women, in particular, something so many other accounts deny them-the right to take up space they are entitled to, and to define what that means.” - Atlantic “A gripping book, with vivid details that linger long after its pages stop. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn’t yet been told but needs to be.įreshman Common Read: California State University: Channel Islands Critical Praise With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties-including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life-and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. 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. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel.New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. Roxane Gay is the author of Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, and Hunger.
The story of my life is wanting, hungering, for what I cannot have or, perhaps, wanting what I dare not allow myself to have. I know that hunger is in the mind and the body and the heart and the soul. My father believes hunger is in the mind. It is a powerful lie to equate thinness with self-worth. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. I buried the girl I had been because she ran into all kinds of trouble.
What does it say about our culture that the desire for weight loss is considered a default feature of womanhood?
#Scholarly analysis of hunger by roxane gay how to
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. In Hunger, she explores her past-including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life-and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.
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. I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.” I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. Audiobook Length: 11 hours and 15 minutesĪ searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.