Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)
by Marya Hornbacher
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marya HornbacherEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-31
ISBN: 0060858796
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)
Book Review: Refuting the Condemning "How-to-Guide" Reviews of Wasted
Summary: 5 Stars
It makes me very angry when people call this a disgusting book and tell everyone to avoid it because people with eating disorders often use it for "tips and tricks" or a "how-to" guide. Yes, eating disordered people may do that, worship this book with some kind of godly reverence, but you have to remember we're eating disordered, we're not quite right in the head, we're always looking for new ways to get "worse" and "tips and tricks," and we'll always find them. This book is probably my favorite book, and I re-read it over and over again, and NOT for any "tips."
Personally, when I read this book, I had already been eating disordered for a year or so, and I did not come across any new "tips" I hadn't heard of, or gotten any new "ideas." Someone with an eating disorder will find out all of these so called tricks regardless of whether or not they read this book, if they want to- inevitable since there are entire websites online dedicated to them, in much greater detail than described in here. Even if they do not go searching for them, they will "discover" them during a Psychology or Health class lecture on the dangers and behaviors of eating disorders. Some of the 1 star reviews were from health professionals claiming these should be banned because of how it seems to advise people on tricking their doctors in treatment, but really, those "tricks" should be just as well known by the doctors treating them, and I believe they already are, since they have established ways to combat them (I know, for a fact, that they are supposed to check all the napkins after meals for spitting, weigh everyone in hospital gowns, leave the door open in the bathroom, and check the specific gravity of urine to see if they are water loading). An eating disordered person oblivious of these tricks can, in fact, gain awareness from their own treatment specialist when they are given a run-down of the "rules" of treatment, wherein they are actually TOLD "no spitting in napkins, no water loading, no throwing up" etc. I do believe the behaviors she did were integral to the memoir and book as a whole, to completely portray the hell someone with an ED goes through. I also believe keeping the behaviors in there is actually beneficial to combating these behaviors since friends and parents could become educated about them and be on the look out for them, as they are often more oblivious of these tricks than the eating disordered individuals themselves.
It is much better for us to be reading this book which is raw with the negative aspects included than an internet weight-loss sight, or one of those 80s chick flicks about a girl with anorexia and becomes thin and then gets over it in a year and then goes on happily like nothing happened.
The truth is, eating disordered individuals will always have something to further their sickness if they so wish it, no matter how innocent or good the subject matter was intended to be- I myself did not get anything from this book other than literary enjoyment, but constantly have found and do find new interesting facts and possible ideas from the Health/Psychology/Nutrition classes I have taken, and the multitude of Comprehensive Anorexia/Bulimia TREATMENT Guides and overviews of the disorder meant for health professionals strewn on the ground under my bed- showing just how futile it is to ban a book for "tips" someone might get. Apologies to those who are trying to treat/help someone through it, but it is better for you to be aware of all the infinite possibilities someone can be getting encouragement from. Basically, I think it is unfair and a dying battle to condemn a book for the possibility of it being used for the purpose unintended (and I definitely do not believe she wrote this to try to spread tips and proliferate EDs, like some reviewers have stated) and just use it to spread awareness among people who's loved ones are EDed that these tips are being used and they should be constantly vigilant for them.
As I have said, I really love this book and read it constantly, but I do that because I think it is a work of literary brilliance regardless of the subject matter. Maybe I am biased because of the subject matter, but I remain adamant about how good a writer she is because I also love her other books, which are written similarly.
I love this book because of how uncensored and real it is, not filled with the sugar coating of those Hollywood movies. She doesn't censor the gory details and adds in all the consequences she can (which apparently, a few other negative reviewers didn't like because it made the book "depressing" for them, clearly wishing to remain in their fairy tale view of this mental illness) and portrays exactly what an eating disorder is like, how it can drive you crazy, and finally how even while you're dying you're enthralled with your disease.
I could go into even more detail about why it has literary merit and exactly why it is such a good book, but my review is rather excessively long already.
Summary of Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)
Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia -- until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side -- and her decision to find her way back on her own terms.
"I fell for the great American dream, female version, hook, line, and sinker," Marya Hornbacher writes. "I, as many young women do, honest-to-God believed that once I Just Lost a Few Pounds, suddenly I would be a New You, I would have Ken-doll men chasing my thin legs down with bouquets of flowers on the street, I would become rich and famous and glamorous and lose my freckles and become blond and five foot ten." Hornbacher describes in shocking detail her lifelong quest to starve herself to death, to force her short, athletic body to fade away. She remembers telling a friend, at age 4, that she was on a diet. Her bizarre tale includes not only the usual puking and starving, but also being confined to mental hospitals and growing fur (a phenomenon called lanugo, which nature imposes to keep a body from freezing to death during periods of famine).
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