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

by Leslea Newman (Editor)

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 299 pages
• Publisher: Crossing Press; 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 (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,451,630 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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 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 (REAL NAME)

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 Eat, Drink and Read this Book!, April 15, 2004

By	KDMask (Rochester, Planet Fab, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

A compilation of essays that are both touching and so real, you'll swear you wrote some yourself. Not just for those with eating disorders or even issues; it's for all women that have ever struggled with their body image and weight. I wish I had had this book when I was a teen because it really lets you see that so many of us are just the same when it comes to the love/hate relationship we have with food.