Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women's Relationship to Food [Paperback]

Leslea Newman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

The author of Fat Chance and SomeBody to Love: A Guide to Loving the Body You Have presents 92 personal accounts by women of all ages and walks of life, who tell stories of their past and present problems with food, their childhood traumas, how their lives have been affected, and their visions of the future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of 92 brief poetry and prose pieces, some previously published, is a virtual celebration of dysfunction. With few exceptions, these works--many written in the first person--depict a world in which a Ben and Jerry's shop can be a "den of . . . sin" or a "house of worship," but not just a plain old ice cream store. Many of the works (no distinction is made between fiction and nonfiction) depict dieting, gorging, anorexia and/or bulimia as a way of life; ultimately eating is "all one extended, unsatisfying experience." "Empty" and "full" have little meaning; the standards are victory (e.g., getting a snack on the sly) and defeat (e.g., gorging on that snack). These women fight the contradictory influences of families, friends, and society at large, that promote food while elevating svelteness to a cardinal virtue: "Women's magazines give us luscious cake recipes for our families and diet tips for ourselves." While many individual works are effective and the sheer number of pieces argues for the prevalence of eating disorders, for the general reader Newman's ( Good Enough to Eat ) collection goes beyond thoroughness to obsession--an interesting failing, considering the subject.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Feminist writer Newman (Good Enough to Eat, 1986, etc.--not reviewed) put together this collection of original cries, complaints, and confessions on the belief that ``most of us [women] have, or at least at one time had, a voice inside us that nags at almost every meal: You shouldn't eat that.'' Lee Lynch, one of several lesbian contributors, maintains that ``there is probably not a lesbian in the world who would not, at the slightest sign of interest, tell you about her personal history with food.'' The ninety other anorexics, bulemics, overeaters, and other food- disordered women represented here--few if any of them accomplished writers--would seem to bear out these assertions with their lamentations about ups and downs and mostly losing battles against cake and chocolate and whatever high-fat confection might stuff up their empty and demanding selves. Typical openers: ``I can't remember a time when I wasn't obsessed with food''; ``...another sob story of a female blaming her family for the voids in her life.'' True, but this last writer assumes too much when she adds that ``my story was different.'' These no doubt heartfelt accounts, whether in the first or third person, might be therapeutic for the writers and company for the misery of similarly obsessed readers. They might even act as a temporary curb for overeaters (it's hard to imagine anyone wading through the entire volume with appetite intact)--but they are pathetically short on insight, analysis, perspective, or even compelling re-creation of experience. In the last of these qualities, at least, they can't touch the several well-known harrowing tales by slaves to alcohol and drugs. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 299 pages
• Publisher: Crossing Pr; 1 edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089594569X
• ISBN-13: 978-0895945693
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,845,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lesléa Newman is the author of 64 books for readers of all ages including the middle grade novel, HACHIKO WAITS, the poetry collection, STILL LIFE WITH BUDDY, the short story collection, A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK, and the children's books A SWEET PASSOVER, THE BOY WHO CRIED FABULOUS, THE BEST CAT IN THE WORLD, DONOVAN'S BIG DAY, and HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES. Her literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. A past poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, she is a faculty member of Spalding University's brief-residency MFA in Writing program.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Obsession to Resolution Essays by and about FAT women, November 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women's Relationship to Food (Paperback)

This is a book about anxiety, heartbreak, obsession, and eventually, resolution. The text is a compilation of over ninety essays, stories, and poems, some very good, and some not so good. The book is not specifically about the experience of fat women, but rather the experience of women with eating disorders. The editor states in the forward that women would rather tell what intimate things transpire in their bedrooms than divulge what really goes on in their kitchens. She goes on to say that for all the media attention given to eating disorders recently, no one actually talks about what women do with food. This book definitely talks about it in intimate detail. When I delved into the book, it was with the assumption that these stories would include some elements of eventual acceptance, of coming to terms with food. This wasn't the case until about page 200. the first five sections of the text were so steeped in the obsession - either the obsession to eat, or the obsession not to eat -that I found I could only read for about fifteen or twenty minutes, and then I'd have to lay the book down. It was, quite frankly, depressing. I might even say that on some level, it was demoralizing. I found myself less and less interested in finishing the book, but I pushed on nonetheless. Happily, the book did reach a place of resolution. Sections with subtitles like "I Wear my Stretch Marks Like a Banner" and "Letting Food Off the Hook" contained the stories, essays, and poems I wanted to read: stories of acceptance of oneself as is. Stories that were worth reading. In "Are You Thin Yet?", author Jennifer Semple Siegel writes, "In essence, I have thrown out all the old diet rules. After all, generally speaking, people who are naturally slender and have a positive self-image don't put themselves through a lifetime of agony over food. And now, neither will I." Another gem came from Marianne Banks, in "A Fat Dyke Tells All." She writes: "Finally I realize that my size and what I eat have nothing to do with contentment, intelligence, humor, creativity, sexual desire or desirability. Curiously, once I accepted myself and food, all of those increased. Letting food off the hook, I extended myself the same courtesy. No longer do I allow what I eat to create my power. I stopped using food's presence or absence as a gauge to measure my self-worth. Food is just something to eat." These and the other thirty plus authors and poets whose work appears at the back of the book are well worth reading. The preceding sections of works? I recommend them only to the reader who doesn't mind being enveloped in obsession and misery. For everyone else, start reading at page 200.Terry Lawler Early

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars eating our hearts out, November 8, 2005

By 

E. M. Bristol "bibliophile" (boston, mass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women's Relationship to Food (Paperback)

An instructive and highly entertaining anthology about women's relationships to their bodies and food. In poetry, fiction and nonfiction, these authors explore what it means to be a woman in today's society. Some of the authors suffer, or have suffered from anorexia or bulimia, some are overweight, and some are simply "obsessed" with food and eating, but all in some ways have an eating "disorder," and an uneasy relationship with their bodies. The themes range from the difficulty of resisting mint cookies to a debutante's mother tucking a feather into her daughter's purse so that she may use it to vomit. Food in various guises is "my friend, my therapist, my lover, my confidant, my medic and ultimately my greatest enemy," as one woman writes. The perspectives are tough, tender, satirical, passionate and affectionate. The book is dedicated "For hungry women everywhere."

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe PW and Kirkus just don't get it..., December 14, 2011

By 

Angie (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women's Relationship to Food (Paperback)

I'm a little bit dismayed by the negative PW and Kirkus reviews (reprinted above by Amazon) for this book. I can't tell whether the reviewers lack compassion for women who struggle with food issues or whether the reviewers didn't really read the whole collection. PW calls it a "celebration of dysfunction;" Kirkus seems to think it's one complaint after another.

I didn't get either of those vibes.

_Eating Our Hearts Out_ is not only a good, solid read, it's a helpful one. This isn't a book about women "whining" about their eating issues. This is a book about and for any woman who has ever genuinely been conflicted, or in pain, because of an unnatural or obsessive relationship with the food in her life.

Whether it's the opening poem "Innocence" by Ellen Linz (which questions whether there was ever a time in life when food came without the high cost of sin or self-recriminations) or the personal essays and short stories (often heart-breaking, especially when a spouse or partner is mean with weight comments or threats of leaving) _Eating Our Hearts_ is certainly better than other collections of the same nature.

Having read several eating disorders books with a professional slant (many of them often cold and clinical to the point you have no feel for the subject at all) I have to say I much prefer the personal approach.

Another thing _Eating Our Hearts Out_ has going for it is that it doesn't romanticize the topic or make it seem "chic." It's just an honest, often painful, look at how food (and thoughts of food) can consume us instead of the other way around.