Customer Reviews

Starving Hearts

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a vivid account of life during a time when the general public knew little about eating disorders and abusive relationships! It makes me feel much more sympathetic towards people whose behavior appears strange. While it describes complex family and social environments with strong religious overtones, this book is also a gripping story - hard to put down and with a great mixture of humor, emotion and drama. A wonderful first novel - I'm looking forward to No.2!

I really have no clue as to why this book is rated so highly. the writing is poor and immature, and the first 200 pages are like a broken record the song list of which is:

" My Bitchy Mother Hates Me"

" Daddy Save Me"

" I Can't get Married Therefore I'll Starve"

I actually disliked the main character for most of the time.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, i realize it takes guts to reveal your demons, but it doesn't have to be such a drag. I have experienced the hopelessness of eating disorders but i can express my feelings in more than the superficial and boring way that she does. The book actually doesn't do justice to the excruciating horror of eating disorders. Yes the story is tragic but a book needs a bit more than that to make it readable. Dull, Dull, Dull. i gave it 3 stars because the last 50 or so pages actually got to me. I don't know, i expected more.

A most powerful story. Thankfully, I have never known the devastating details of anorexia and bulimia. This novel paints a vivid picture, and creates a huge sense of sympathy for those afflicted.

The writing is candid, the story is well-developed, and the characters are vivid. I truly enjoyed it, and wish the author much success with this "first" novel and future creations.

This is the compelling story of a sensitive, intelligent young woman who has to endure the extended emotional pain of an overly critical and detached mother and then a loveless marriage. This book helped me to better understand how family, interpersonal, and cultural pressures can lead to eating disorders. The reasons for anorexia and bulimia are extremely complex and this book explores them in an entertaining way. It has all the elements of a good novel, including humor, pathos, passion and danger. I am greatly impressed by the courage, honesty, and wonderful talent of the author, Lynn Ruth Miller, who based the characters and events on her own true life experience. I have been recommending "Starving Hearts" to my family and friends....

This novel appears to have been written as a therapeutic exercise. The plot sounded interesting to me, but the book comes complete with pages and pages of blurbs from therapists about the therapeutic value of the text. So, I approached reading the book with a bit of trepidation.

I did find the plot to be engaging. Susan Talberg, coming of age in the 1950s, is overshadowed by her abusive mother and bratty sister. To cope with her family issues she falls into anorexia and bulimia. The trajectory will sound familiar: controlling food is the only way that Susan feels she can control her life. Over the course of the book the reader discovers that Susan's mother is a miserable woman with food issues of her own. Completely beaten down by her useless family, Susan's life revolves around sustaining her eating disorders and dealing with her abusive husband.

I would basically rate this book as acceptable. The plot is okay, but nothing special or earth-shattering. The book will likely be of most interest to those dealing with issues surrounding eating disorders in their own lives. This is not transcendent fiction; it is a story that deals with a specific issue. I suspect I might have enjoyed a memoir by Miller more than I did this book. Miller suggests in her acknowledgments that she has been through a similar series of struggles, and a memoir might have allowed for deeper insight than what this fictional story can offer.

A real straight forward, tell it like it really is book! The author shares the hard core truths of dealing with a dysfunctional family system and the almost deadly results of it living in it. The way the story is written is almost surreal, you can feel the author describing the eating binges that the daughter gravitated to in order to survive her mothers relentless efforts to abuse and punish the daughter because of her own unresolved pain. The author definetly has a tremendous ability in her writing style to draw one in so closely, that you actually feel like your living the traumas this family survived.

I greatly admire the courage shown in the writing of this book. I was often touched, saddened, and uplifted. I came to understand more about this subject then I ever thought I would. I was surprised by the feeling of familiarity. What a survivor this wonderful woman is!

When a friend, who thought it to be a terrific novel with a meaning, lent me Starving Hearts I did not want to be insulting by refusing it. Especially when I was told what the book was dealing with. After all, when I was growing up my family life was good and I did not have, nor do I have a problem with overweight, anorexia or bulimia. I promised myself to glance at the first few pages and do the rest by starting with my finger at the top of each page and go to the bottom to be able to say (I detest lying) I have gone through the book thoroughly. But I was wrong with my prejudiced attitude. The more I read the less could I put the book down. It was not anymore that I had nothing to do with anorexia or the likes of it, it was a book I began to live with. Susan Talberg became a person, became a friend, and her suffering became tangible to me. I read every word of the story and was sorry when it ended. I wanted to know the rest of Susan Talberg's life. Lynn Ruth Miller's writing is superb, it is smooth and it is fascinating.

I have had the pleasure of meeting the author, Lynn Ruth Miller, and find her as engaging as the book she has written. She is as real as the story. Having had an eating disorder all of my life, it was easy to relate to the character in her book (herself)and all that she goes through. But it is more than just about anorexia, it is about relationships and family dynamics. It all hit home very hard. It is a story told right from the heart.

Starving Hearts is a visceral, powerful first novel about a woman who is consumed by food in every sense of the word. Susan Talberg's journey is told in stark and compelling language which immediately invites the reader into the story...and so we struggle, we cry, we rejoice, we mourn, and we triumph along with Susan as she fights to control her simultaneous attraction and revulsion toward food -- and a controlling mother who battles her own demons. Painful yet funny, sad yet hopeful, Starving Hearts is the kind of book that makes you want to seek out the author and hug her.