Read This Book…

In addition to being intense, Hunger is a very important and sometimes difficult read. Roxane Gay is, in her own words, a woman of size. She wasn’t always “of size.” When Roxane Gay was twelve, she was violently sexually assaulted by a group of boys from her school. She says she “ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.” When you are big, you are both invisible and highly visible all at once. Everyone has an opinion on your body, but few have consideration for you. Roxane Gay shares, in painful detail, how others try to punish her for her body and how she would crave the punishment and even punish herself. She begins by telling readers that, “The story of my body is not a story of triumph” yet it is a true story. (Side note: Body positivity doesn’t play a role in this book. This is not that kind of book.)

A large portion of the book is a rapid firing of abuse upon abuse as a person of size riding on airplanes, abuse from trolls on the internet, lack of consideration for ability when being a speaker. Will the chairs suit her body? How high is the stage? She also lays bare our society’s normalization of the abuse of fat people on shows like The Biggest Loser.

As I mentioned earlier, this is such an important book to read. It can be so easy to look at a person or a photo of a person and make judgments based on what you see. But you don’t see their story and no one sees your story. Hunger is Roxane Gay stepping forward and sharing her body’s story. It is not always a happy one. She shows vulnerability in her honesty about learning to nurture both her body and her spirit. It serves as a reminder that we’re all learning this and we’re all at different stages in our learning. This book is also a harsh reminder and wake-up call to be considerate of the reality of the bodies of others.

Content warnings: violent sexual assault, emotional abuse, eating disorders and eating disorder ideation, anti-fatness, and verbal abuse.