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Hunger Point: A Novel
 
 
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Hunger Point: A Novel [Paperback]

Jillian Medoff (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 15, 2002

"My parents may love me, but I also know they view me as a houseguest who is turning a weekend stay into an all-expense-paid, lifelong residency, and who (to their horror) constantly forgets to flush the toilet and shut off the lights."

Twenty-six-year-old Frannie Hunter has just moved back home. Bright, wry, blunt, and irreverent, she invites you to witness her family's unraveling. Her Harvard-bound sister is anorexic, her mother is having an affair, her father is obsessed with the Food Network, her grandfather wants to plan her wedding (even though she has no fiancé, let alone a steady boyfriend), and, to top it off, Frannie is a waitress who wears a dirty duck apron and serves plates of fried cheese to her ex-boyfriend's parents.

By turns wickedly funny and heartbreakingly bittersweet, Hunger Point chronicles Frannie's triumph over her own self-destructive tendencies, and offers a powerful exploration of the complex relationships that bind together a contemporary American family. You will never forget Frannie, a "sultry, suburban Holden Caulfield," who critics have called "the most fully realized character to come along in years," (Paper) and you'll never forget Hunger Point, an utterly original novel that stuns with its amazing insights and dazzles with its fresh, distinctive voice.


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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This ambitious, ribald, and extremely honest first novel attempts to unravel the familial and social pressures that drive two sisters into a life of serious food abuse. One survives, the other doesn't. Frannie, though she does not succumb completely to anorexia, is near the breaking point, and Hunger Point takes us along on her painful and often funny emotional odyssey of rebirth, detailed with her family's embattled love and her own self-loathing. Food is not the only matter of the body that is treated brilliantly; the author's soul-baring depiction of both the miseries and pleasures of sex from a woman's point of view is unforgettable and occasionally terrifying. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Unfortunately, until women stop mistaking food for love and thinness for perfection, stories such as this one will need to be told. Equally unfortunately, the telling is flawed despite the story's importance. Narrator Frannie Hunter recounts the disturbing story of her sister's anorexia and suicide, her parent's broken marriage, and her own obsession with food and men. Although confronting enough conflict to fill a dysfunctional family circus, Frannie most often reacts by sleeping, whining, or crying?all understandable psychological responses but ones that do nothing for the dramatic tension of the novel. Striving for realism, Medoff manages only to be mundane. A more dynamic heroine would have focused an otherwise commendable first novel.?Yvette Weller Olson, City Univ. Lib., Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (October 15, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060989238
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060989231
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jillian Medoff's bitterly funny, shocking new novel, I Couldn't Love You More, will be available from Grand Central Publishing in May, 2012. She is the acclaimed author of Hunger Point and Good Girls Gone Bad, both of which received surprisingly great reviews (surprising to her). A huge seller in the US, Hunger Point was the basis for the Lifetime movie starring Barbara Hershey and Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men"). Although Jillian is proud of Hunger Point, had anyone asked, she would not have selected such a bright pink (any pink, frankly) for the trade paperback edition. Her books have been translated into many different languages, including French, Spanish, Hebrew, Turkish, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, and German, but her big wish is for an edition in Tagalog.

The eldest daughter of a traveling salesman, Jillian moved 17 times by age 17, ultimately ending up in Atlanta, where her new novel is set. She has a BA from Barnard and an MFA from NYU, and is grateful for having studied with such luminary writers as Mona Simpson, Jonathan Dee, Robert Coover, and Alice Walker. She also attended Master Classes with Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, and Grace Paley. Although each author continues to influence her work in powerful and diverse ways, she suspects few of them, if any, remember her. A former fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Blue Mountain Center, VCCA and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, Jillian taught at NYU and the University of Georgia, but for only, like, five minutes.

You can read more about her books at www.jillianmedoff.com. She currently lives in New York with her family, and has no plans to move anytime soon.

 

Customer Reviews

72 Reviews
5 star:
 (48)
4 star:
 (18)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (72 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Jillian Medoff does it again!, February 13, 2003
This review is from: Hunger Point: A Novel (Paperback)
I was duly impressed with Jillian Medoff's Good Girls Gone Bad, and so I didn't hesitate to pick up this book. Hunger Point is a poignant novel about a young woman's struggles with the unraveling of her family.

Frannie Hunter, unable to sustain a job and an apartment of her own, moves back with her parents. As she tries to get her life in order, she witnesses her sister's battle with Anorexia, her mother's two-timing behavior, and her father's career woes. As a former anorexic, I can relate to the hardships the protagonist and the other characters go through.

The subject matters that Medoff addresses in Hunger Point -- eating disorders, depression, grief, etc. -- are mixed with poignancy and humor. Medoff is as witty as she is insightful. I laughed out loud in many occasions. Her work is similar to Anna Maxtet's; however, Jillian Medoff has a particular brand of comic timing and keen storytelling all her own. She is one of the best new authors out there and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Witty, Wise and Wonderful, September 4, 2001
I cannot believe this one is out of print already. Track down a used copy of Hunger Point, it will be worth your effort. Hunger Point is a very funny, engaging story, with many more layers than the usual single girl in search of life, love and career. Frannie Hunter the protagonist has always been overshadowed by her brilliant younger sister Shelly. Frannie had just moved back home and is working as a waitress in a local restaurant and is single, but Shelly has just been hospitalized for anorexia. As their family tries to cope with Shelly's crisis, Frannie tries to deal with her own issues, on top of what's happening to Shelly. Hunger Point can be funny and sad at the same time. It is a wonderful exploration of family relationships and of eating disorders. Frannie is a warm, personable character you will find yourself rooting for. Find yourself a copy and enjoy.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars isn't enough, September 11, 2003
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Hunger Point: A Novel (Paperback)
I read alot (close to fifty books so far this year) and in all that time I have only read a handful of books that affected me as much as this one. I was greatly moved by this story. I think Ms. Medoff really dug down deep and drew from her well of experience for this novel. I don't think she could have written a book this good without having some experience and a deep knowledge about Anorexia and its effects on a family. I was moved to tears many times by this painfully honest novel, but just as many times I was laughing out loud at the author's acerbic wit.

Frannie Hunter is 26 years old and she is just part of majorly dysfunctional family. She can't seem to hold onto a job or an apartment and is forced to move back home and live with her parents. Frannie's mother, Marsha is obsessed with food, her body image and that of her children's not to mention the fact that she is also addicted to tranquilizers. Frannie's father, David is in the midst of a career crisis, he watches all the cooking shoes on T.V. and instead of talking with his family to find out what is really going on, he perfers to do the daily word jumbles and not say much to anyone. Shelly, Frannie's younger sister is a gifted graduate of Cornell, she wants to attend Harvard Law mainly to make her mother happy and she is the Anorexic one. Perhaps she is forced into that as well to please her mother or she just adopts this pattern of behavior because that is all she knows. Although this is a novel about Anorexia and other obsessive behaviors, it is also about women's relationships to men, sex and other women. It is the relationship between Frannie and Shelly that was the most heartwrenching for me. It is one that I am still thinking about even though I have finished the book and one that I am not likely to forget. Readers who loved this book as much as I did might also want to try a book about a man's struggle with drug addiction and that is: A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey. Both of these books are unforgettable!!

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Look at these breasts! They're huge!" Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hunger point, incredible mouth
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Aunt Lillian, Rat Boy, Grandma Gert, New York, Lindsey Point, Johnny Bennet, Vicky Tayborn, Bryan Thompson, Frannie Hunter, Weight Watchers, Cuisine America, Camp Galaxy, Diet Coke, Grandpa Max, Daniel Reynolds, Jewish Home, Richard Gere, Sister Thing, Spa Day, Audrey Hepburn, Bad Ronald, Christian Times, Family Night, Long Island, Mizz Billings
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