FOOD AND LOATHING is a deeply moving yet funny memoir about food obsession and depression.
In FOOD AND LOATHING a bright, chubby girl believes that thinness is next to godliness and so attends one of the first meetings of Overeaters Anonymous in 1975. Her twenties are marked by yo-yo dieting, depressive episodes and a sadistic shrink. Then, just as her dream of being a writer is within reach, entering Columbia's prestigious MFA program, she spirals into a suicidal depression and lands for a six-month stay at New York State Psychiatric Institute. There a young resident helps her take her first steps towards selfhood, unravelling the self-loathing of an eating disorder coupled with a paralysing mood disorder. He also helps her confront a tragic family secret whose silence had enveloped an otherwise average Jewish middle-class family.
FOOD AND LOATHING is a book about how people use food to narcotise, to love and to escape. It's about therapy - the good, the bad, and the down right destructive - and about every woman who spends too much of her life thinking about her weight and how she can forgive herself for living - and even learn to love.
This sharp memoir is a must - OK! MAGAZINE
This book recounts her experiences with warmth and wit - IRISH EXAMINER
The subtitle, 'A Sad and Funny Memoir Of A Life Counted Out In Calories', says it all. - GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
A powerful memoir about food obsession and depression, aimed at every woman who's ever tortured herself over food and weight loss. - WOMAN'S OWN