Life-Size [Mass Market Paperback]

Jenefer Shute (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Landing in the hospital after starving herself down to a mere sixty-seven pounds, anorexia patient Josie reveals the dark secrets behind her painful condition while battling each form of treatment she encounters. Reprint. NYT. "

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With nightmarish accuracy and bleak wit, this first novel--a Literary Guild selection in cloth--chronicles the traumatic hospitalization of an anorexic 25-year-old graduate student.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

After lengthy treatment at an eating disorder clinic, Josie, a 25-year-old anorexic victim weighing 67 pounds, confesses that she "never planned to disappear." Escalating self-degradation prompts her to seek perfection by starving her body at the vulnerable age of 16. She adopts fashion magazines and diet books as her mentors and seeks nirvana through their shallow promises. Absorbed in their own marital problems, Josie's parents fail to acknowledge their daughter's plight. Off at college, Josie isolates herself and devotes her life to exercise and starvation to become the quintessential woman who is never thin enough. Having lost all rational sense, Josie becomes dysfunctional. In a visceral, haunting account of the horrors of anorexia, Shute chillingly explores society's manic obsession with being a perfect size. For Shute, Life-Size is a splendid first novel. For readers, it is a compelling account of the psychological and physical torment experienced by anorexic victims who may not survive. Highly recommended. Literary Guild selection.
- Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380730219
• ISBN-13: 978-0380730216
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Equal To Other Autobiographies-this on is ficiton, November 29, 2002

By 

R. Straw (MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Life-Size (Paperback)

I've finished two books where I continously had to check the spine of the book to make sure it was fiction. This one is one of them. This book is one inwhich I intend to read again. The author describes each feeling, and each hour and minute of the patient's life, this time, in treatment, and not wanting to improve. Wanting to remain, in her own definition of "perfect".
Josephine, the main character, is tough, resistent, and mysterious. The book goes into her mind. Answers questions as to why someone would want this kind of life. Why someone would not want to change themselves for the better, to remain with this type of exsistence. Then, you wonder if she recovers. You're left to guess. I read this book in five days. Too bad it's out of print. I feel very lucky to have obtained my own copy.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True to Life, March 22, 2000

By 

Elizabeth R. Walter (Wheatfield, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life-Size (Paperback)

I found this book to be very similar to what goes through the minds of eating disordered women (I am one of them). It is a sad look into a society that places all the emphasis on the female form and not on what really counts. Unfortunatley, societal pressure has a way of ingraining itself on your soul, and this book is a great example of that. I didn't feel it was romanticized at all. On the contrary, there is nothing even remotely "romantic" in about this story.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, July 29, 2001

By 

bharring (Living Under A Rock) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life-Size (Paperback)

This is one of only a handful of novels describing a victim of anorexia nervosa. Although I do not know if Ms. Shute has ever had anorexia, she did a fabulous job understanding and explaining it without encouraging it (when I first read this book, I was utterly disturbed by Josie's compulsions) or unwittingly doling out "tricks-of-the-trade". Josie is a 25 year-old female graduate student. After her roommate accidentally walks in on her in the shower, she freaks and calls Josie's parents. Unwillingly, Josie allows her parents to admit her to an eating disorders treatment facility. Yet she rebels and has scorn for the insistence of the doctors and nurses that she is dying; at 5'2'' and a mere 67 pounds, it is Josie's goal to sustain herself as a skeleton living off of air. It is only under the threat of hyperalimentation (a frightening method of intravenous nutrition) that Josie begins to eat.

The novel skips around a lot, giving subtle detail, and in parts, it is hard to understand. However, this is an accurate portrayal of the shrunken, distracted mind of an anorexic. The novel expresses all aspects of anorexia--degrading sexual experiences,perfectionism, our culture's emphasis on thinness, and family conflicts--not just offering a wrap-up explanation. Josie's acrid wit and humor are needed to keep the novel lively and give you a glimpse into the hidden pain and masked frustration she is faced with. I like how Josie is shown to be, despite her frailness, a woman who is not immature and weak (like anorexics are often betrayed) or on her knees at the hands of an omniscient therapist. Her pain has left her wary, and she is determined not to let anyone take control of her body away from her, even if accompanied by a loving hand.