Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)
by Marya Hornbacher
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Julia by:
either Amazon or Powellsrecommends it for: anyone who wants to learn about a well-written, first hand account of an eating disorder progression
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Read in January, 2005
i think this book should be pulled from the shelves of most bookstores, or at least not giving to anyone under the age of 25, but i am against censorship, so mostly i just wish this wasn't the book she chose to write.
for a non-ED audience, it plays well. the story is gripping, it goes into detail about the horror of living with an ED, it discusses why the ED is so hard to give up.
for the ED audience, the book is literally packed with tricks and tips and ways to cheat and get around you...more
for a non-ED audience, it plays well. the story is gripping, it goes into detail about the horror of living with an ED, it discusses why the ED is so hard to give up.
for the ED audience, the book is literally packed with tricks and tips and ways to cheat and get around you...more
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Read in August, 2008
I read this the other day and could . not . put . it . down. I was sucked into it's nasty, vortex of destruction from the very first page. Having also just finished reading 'Madness', I can honestly say that my brain feels like tender, pulsating, minced meat right now. I have been on a Hornbacher bender and it feels quite like the time I dealt with alcohol poisoning and an acid come-down all in one evening. This shit is painful to read. And I'm stunned to think that I started reading with cautio...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone struggling with an eating disorder.
This book is the firsthand story of a young woman struggling between two eating disorders, which eventually end up consuming her life.
It is all told in the first person, starting at Marya in a young age. This first person retelling of her struggles really gave me a clear insight into her life, and what made her the way she was. Marya told it as it is, and there are a few powerful lines put into that short book, that I will never forget. This book will draw you in, it almost carries a force wit...more
It is all told in the first person, starting at Marya in a young age. This first person retelling of her struggles really gave me a clear insight into her life, and what made her the way she was. Marya told it as it is, and there are a few powerful lines put into that short book, that I will never forget. This book will draw you in, it almost carries a force wit...more
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Read in January, 2008
I'm still in the process of reading, but here are some quotes I found particularly striking:
"I had a clear, haunting knowledge that my eating disorder was cruelty. We forget this. We think bulimia and anorexia as either a bizarre psychosis, or as a quirky little habit, a phase, or as a thing that women just do. We forget that it is a violent act, that it bespeaks a profound level of anger toward and fear of the self."
"The convenience of having an eating disorder is that yo...more
"I had a clear, haunting knowledge that my eating disorder was cruelty. We forget this. We think bulimia and anorexia as either a bizarre psychosis, or as a quirky little habit, a phase, or as a thing that women just do. We forget that it is a violent act, that it bespeaks a profound level of anger toward and fear of the self."
"The convenience of having an eating disorder is that yo...more
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Read in January, 1999
recommends it for:
anyone, but especially women and girls
I am fairly confident that Wasted will remain my favorite book even as I grow older - that is, unless Marya Hornbacher writes something else that I fall even more deeply in love with, but the chances of that are slim.*
Admittedly, I read this book when I myself was dealing with the issues it describes. Its passages are filled with my own notes and highlights - Hornbacher was perfectly describing the angst-filled teenage life of starvation that I so desperately was trying to lead. T...more
Admittedly, I read this book when I myself was dealing with the issues it describes. Its passages are filled with my own notes and highlights - Hornbacher was perfectly describing the angst-filled teenage life of starvation that I so desperately was trying to lead. T...more
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Read in September, 2007
It would be tacky to put this on my "food" shelf, wouldn't it? But I did get so hungry while reading it that I got up and made spaghetti carbonara. It was delicious.
So this is a memoir of the author's ten-year struggle with bulimia and anorexia. I found it different from other works I've read on eating disorders, in that the author doesn't go for easy explanations of why she almost killed herself. She wasn't trying to be pretty or perfect or to control her world, at least not solel...more
So this is a memoir of the author's ten-year struggle with bulimia and anorexia. I found it different from other works I've read on eating disorders, in that the author doesn't go for easy explanations of why she almost killed herself. She wasn't trying to be pretty or perfect or to control her world, at least not solel...more
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Read in January, 2008
marya describes her "slow dance with death" using the most terrifying and horrific words. i read the abridged version because i did not want to spend too much time with this, because i knew it would scare me. she was first hospitalized at methodist hospital in spring of her freshman year of highschool. but she had basically had an eating disorder since she was three, or thoughts of it anyways, and it had gone undetected all those years because she was living in a world that does not un...more
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recommends it for:
Mature readers
Possibly the finest auto-biography I have ever read. People who have suffered from EDs will complain that this book is packed full of triggers, but so is America's Next Top Model, and I can't say anything about the quality of THAT writing.
This book is a genuine, gripping story of a youth literally thrown away in favor of madness.
For anyone who has not suffered from some incarnation of disordered eating, it will seem surreal, and at times, utterly unbelievable.
The book is effortless...more
This book is a genuine, gripping story of a youth literally thrown away in favor of madness.
For anyone who has not suffered from some incarnation of disordered eating, it will seem surreal, and at times, utterly unbelievable.
The book is effortless...more
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Read in June, 2008
This was exceptionally written. Marya is a girl who suffers from severe anorexia and bulimia and lived to tell about it. When she begins her story and talks about when she first started her bulimia, her observations of things at this young age seemed far beyond her years. Her feelings and thoughts are described in the most intricate detail and intelligence. It isn’t a surprise that Marya won awards for her writing. I grew up during the 70’s and 80’s but I can’t really relate to the ...more
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Read in July, 2008
Okay... what to say about THIS... LOL
I was expected a story about this woman's struggle with ED.
And yeah, it kind of was, but then it kind of wasn't.
Only a very small portion of the book is her actually owning up to her own personal issues & experiences. There is not very much of HER story (i.e. "I did this, I went here, I said that... etc) Not very much "I" at all.
Instead we have a book full of her being totally dissociated from the entire ED. Instead of "I...more
I was expected a story about this woman's struggle with ED.
And yeah, it kind of was, but then it kind of wasn't.
Only a very small portion of the book is her actually owning up to her own personal issues & experiences. There is not very much of HER story (i.e. "I did this, I went here, I said that... etc) Not very much "I" at all.
Instead we have a book full of her being totally dissociated from the entire ED. Instead of "I...more
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Read in June, 2007
see- I judge books by their covers and totally grabbed this one about 4 times on 4 different occasions before I actually committed to it.
thing is, I guess I'm twisted a little and want to understand how people can not have control over their lives. I found out that it isn't because they hate food- most of them actually love food, but they love being skinny more. this girl, this woman is real about her disorder(s) and is brutally honest with herself. this is a sureal look at what it's like...more
thing is, I guess I'm twisted a little and want to understand how people can not have control over their lives. I found out that it isn't because they hate food- most of them actually love food, but they love being skinny more. this girl, this woman is real about her disorder(s) and is brutally honest with herself. this is a sureal look at what it's like...more
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I can't stand when people blame books and movies and tv shows about eating disorders for "triggering" them or teaching them new "tricks." It's such a f*cking cop-out.
I was anorexic for most of my teenage years and relapsed again at 23. I've read this book multiple times because it made me feel less crazy, less alone, and it's the only brutally honest and accurate account I've found of what eating-disordered life is like--and I need that because I need those closest to me...more
I was anorexic for most of my teenage years and relapsed again at 23. I've read this book multiple times because it made me feel less crazy, less alone, and it's the only brutally honest and accurate account I've found of what eating-disordered life is like--and I need that because I need those closest to me...more
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Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
mental health practitioners
I'm ambivalent about this book. Certainly, at times, she pulled no punches...yet at other times, still a bit under the sway of her disorder, she seemed to be bragging about her "successes" in the extremes of her eating disorder. She wasn't really healthy yet, and that came through in ways she probably never intended. In many ways, it helped me understand how eating disorders work. In other ways (again, I'm sure unintentional on the author's part), I began to understand how eating d...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who is into memoirs about severely disturbed people
Having just written an article on young girls and body image, I'm definitely in my eating disorder memoir phase, although this one might have put me off them for awhile. As someone who has never struggled with an eating disorder, I kept running into the problem of reading this memoir through my healthy person lens, which often left me genuinely incredulous and confused about the author's experiences. It should be added that I read everything these days as a parent as well and this one just left ...more
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Read in March, 2008
God, there is nothing more tedious than a personal narrative that just goes on and on and on. I admire Ms. Hornbacher's willingness to put everything out there, but I find much of what she writes terribly suspect. Reading it from a non-eating-disordered perspective, I had to wonder if people who had been through this picked it up and thought "wow, that's just what I went through" or "hey, what a good idea, I never thought of doing that". Plus I'm not sure if the fact she's no...more
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Read in September, 2006
A much more impressive exploration of the causes of eating disorders than any other book on the topic that I've read. She brings in her personal experiences (and is careful to state that her views are about herself and her own experiences and that they may not apply to everyone, or even anyone else) to go beyond theories like young women being influenced by fashion models or trying to delay the onset of puberty. The book is also brutally, brutally honest, especially the last bit in which she c...more
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I bought this book to help me write my thesis paper on eating disoreders, I went in to it expecting another 'reaserch paper' type of book. I was so wrong.
I was horrified, appalled, and compelled by this book. Its crazy how the brain works.
It is a roller coaster of emotions, I do have to say that. However, I feel like a different person, in a way, I understand how she felt.
I never knew how hard life could be, I never realized how horrible a disorder like this can take over your mind. It op...more
I was horrified, appalled, and compelled by this book. Its crazy how the brain works.
It is a roller coaster of emotions, I do have to say that. However, I feel like a different person, in a way, I understand how she felt.
I never knew how hard life could be, I never realized how horrible a disorder like this can take over your mind. It op...more
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Read in October, 2007
Mind-blowing. I was horrified, appalled, and compelled by this book. How Marya even survived, never mind became a successful author, is beyond me. I kept telling myself it was too dark, that I didn't need to keep reading it and yet, I couldn't put it down. As Nicole, said, 'it was like going by a car-wreck". You know you shouldn't look but show me the person who can resist! I found it interesting that so many of her thoughts about food and self seem so "normal". It's scary...more
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Read in January, 1999
recommends it for:
Everybody
Ok, I read this a long time ago, but it's still quite possibly the best book on eating disorders -- or even on adolescent mental illness -- that I've ever read. Hornbacher is intelligent, avoids cliches and above all, avoids making herself sound good when she can tell the truth instead. A bracing departure from the "girls can't help starving themselves to death when they see all those models in those glossy magazines" line of thinking about eating disorders -- a line of thinking that t...more
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