There is just so much going on in the memoir! It is so much more than the story of a woman with an eating disorder. This book is told with so much detail and honesty, and it allows you to really feel the pain and emotion that Sarah suffers through. This story deals with women’s mental health, and how often it is disregarded in society as important, or even real. This is a must read!

Sarah Moss is a unique writer, and so it comes as no surprise that her memoir would also be unique. Told mostly in the second person, with unflinching honestly and generous detail, she remembers everything about growing up, giving an account of food disorders from the beginning wherein despite assurances from the school nurse that she is not overweight for her frame, she is constantly being reviled as too fat, food and other indulgences being held up as evil. There is also quite a bit of abuse from the "owl," which she calls her father, making this a study of life under a paternalistic system. I particularly liked the deep analyses of books that influenced her, mostly 19th century works such as Jane Eyre and the works of Laura Ingalls. This is the second author biography I've read recently, and find the way their novelistic style influences their memoirs.

My thanks to NetGalley and FSG for an eARC of this book (to be published October 22, 2024).
Ever since I read Moss' "Ghost Wall" a few years ago I have grabbed up her books as they have been published. She is so multifacted - a university prof, novelist, travel writer, and historian (including of food).
There is a lot going on here, and it did take me a bit to churn through the first third of the book. But then she starts writing about her battle with anorexia - both as a teen and as an adult. The truth of the disease as she presents it is brutal. That dichotomy between what she knows she needs to do (to stay alive, and to work), and what she does stands out on every page. I chugged along for a week on the first third of the book, and finished the other two thirds in 2 nights.
But she presents her anorexia as not just a personal issue, going further to tie it all in with white male hegemony, misogyny, racism and classism. Including reminding us how versions of feminism can be racists and classist as well.
She also rereads and reinterprets books from her childhood - Wilder, Ransom, C. Bronte. She knew there was something "off" even while reading them as a child, but as an adult is able to identify what that was. She provides further "lit crit" throughout the book, including the Wordsworths, Wollstonecraft and Woolf. I loved it!
I am sure that some will try to stick this into a niche of being a "feminist" or "woman's only" book, but it is so much more for all of us. Her life, the harsh detail of her anorexia, and her critical reading of literature, food and history are all well worth reading.
And I haven't even touched on her life as a child. One thing that really hit me, how all the young girls knew which daddies and uncles to stay away from! I wish she had not swept over her time in University, and establishing herself in the academia. Perhaps that is already in one of her other books.
I've yet to read any of her nonfiction, or her earlier fiction, but am looking forward to diving into those as well.
4.5 out of 5

I admire the writing of Sarah Moss so much, and it's a great privilege to read about Sarah in her own words. A lot of Sarah's work seems to contain acts of violence, psychological and literal, and it's possible to see where that comes from. I especially loved how Sarah continually argues against herself about how reliable her narration is. I alo felt how truthful she is about what it's truly like to be a woman. About how Sarah and her mother have responded to parenting and feminism in very different ways. It's really exceptionally good.

I liked the authors previous work. However, the second Person narration in this memoir simply did not work for me and made it, sadly, impossible to engage with it. I will try to revisit it at some later point to See if this might change as I enjoy the author's writing style othwewise. Would still recommend others to give it a try!

I loved this book and read it twice! Literally started again as soon as I finished it. I don't know Moss's other work but will now seek it out. I admired this book's scope and vivid writing. The handling of eating disorders and body dysmorphia was outstanding and truly demands our attention.

An insightful, intellectual memoir about, among other things, dealing with anorexia from girlhood through middle age. I loved the first section, in which the author views her childhood through the lens of what she was reading at the time, with thoughtful feminist analysis of classic books from Beatrix Potter and Laura Ingalls Wilder to Jane Eyre and The Bell Jar; I was gripped by the later sections that describe the author’s struggles with life-threatening anorectic episodes that she just can’t get the better of through her formidable intelligence and penchant for self-analysis. Something that really elevated this one for me was the author’s ability to engage throughout with her own whiteness and axes of privilege. It’s not a book about race but it’s a book that doesn’t ignore race, and I honor it for that. Also appreciated is the bibliography with sources for coping with disordered eating. Some books that deal with anorexia can be triggering, and this one might best be read with caution depending on your personal issues, but I found it beautifully honest and sadly brave in its willingness to stare down and embrace the wolf.

I love memoirs! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title by Sarah Moss. I wasn't familiar with Moss, but this story was fascinating. The writing is a bit more sophisticated than what I'm used to. Overall, I applaud Moss for her words and for sharing deeply personal accounts of her life.