What do you think?
Rate this book
Eve's Apple
Ruth Simon is beautiful, smart, talented—and always hungry. As a teenager she starved herself to the brink of death, and though her weight is now normal, the simple act of eating remains a torment. Her lover, Joseph, is a young man adrift, anchored only by the Russian immigrants he teaches and by his love for Ruth. Determined to save her, he sets out to unravel the mystery of hunger and denial. But as his desperation mounts, Joseph is drawn deeper and deeper into Ruth's obsession.
Jonathan Rosen's unforgettable first novel offers a subtle and intricate meditation on the nature of hunger and longing—for food, for knowledge, and for love. Eve's Apple introduces a powerful and mesmerizing new voice: stylish, wise, and compassionate.
Jonathan Rosen's unforgettable first novel offers a subtle and intricate meditation on the nature of hunger and longing—for food, for knowledge, and for love. Eve's Apple introduces a powerful and mesmerizing new voice: stylish, wise, and compassionate.
309 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
14 people are currently reading
554 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 19, 2009
Tough book, tough tough book. I had to read the entire book in 15 minute blocks. Sometimes I felt physically ill after what I'd read. It's a book dealing with eating disorders in history and has some pretty vile accounts of women eating cat vomit or licking floors and walls clean of everything including spiderwebs. A male discourse on the problems of male discourse when dealing with women's eating disorders. If there's anything of pure value in this book it's the statement made by Fleck that if so many women are trying so hard to die, why do we men have any fear that we are inadequate for them? I've known suicidal girls, I'm certain I've known many women with eating disorders, though none have outwardly shown it in a way that I could see. I don't agree with Rosen's idea that there's nothing that can be done to help these women and that trying to do so leads only to frustration and failure. Perhaps I'm the typical male that Rosen describes, I only want to get involved from some male ego. But I cannot believe that we are all islands to ourselves, that our problems exist only within ourselves and nobody can help because if we want to be sick than by god we'll be sick. There are things we can do, if nothing else, support and show love, but I don't agree at all with this notion that modern society is killing us all and there's nothing we can do but die.
April 27, 2023
Wanted to give a 1 star but I’ve given 3 stars because of how disturbing, horrific, yet eye opening this book was. This was a hard book to read - I felt physically unwell. The perspective of the boyfriend and his fascination with Eves disorder was utterly devastating but quite an interesting read, some mundane moments but the writing is disturbingly beautiful.
August 9, 2024
Quotes from the book.....Einstein said that we would fight the third world war with sticks......no....we are already fighting it with fork and knife......we wanted Eve's apple because we wanted more.....and now that we have more we want more and more
February 20, 2014
I love this book. I've re-read it many times. The story of an eating disorder through the eyes of that person's significant other was fascinating to me. His observations and--sadly--obsession with her illness seem so realistic and so telling about co-dependent relationships in general. I also liked the ending, which to me showed that you can't "cure" someone's emotional problems with love. All you can do is love them, and hope they get the help they need.
February 25, 2014
I wanted to rate this higher because the writing is so much better than most books on the subject of anorexia. The tender love story takes centre stage too which is good. And it's an insightful account of what the illness does to people. However I found the characters so tortured and the middle section expounding about it too heavy to give it more than three and a half.
March 25, 2024
Anorexia nervosa suffers the same fate as sex when it comes to media representation. Society’s prurient fascination gives it sickly veneer of glamour, but also a fearful, impotent vagueness: Nearly all representations of it are laughably shitty and lamentably irresponsible because of a refusal to delve into particulars.
Eve’s Apple, however, is the canniest portrait of anorexia I’ve ever encountered. This was my opinion in 2006 and I retain it in 2023 upon re-reading it. This might be a slightly controversial opinion, as it’s told from the perspective of a man who, helplessly watching his partner slip back into anorexia, becomes fascinated by the disease.It is a mark of Rosen’s incredible talent that he avoids the fetishization of the anorexic and only anorexia nervosa itself.
Ruth and Joseph are a young, Ivy-educated Jewish couple in Manhattan who have recently moved in together. Ruth, who reached a perilously low weight as a teenager, has since kept herself in a state of quasi-recovery, as any person who’s had a whiff of the disease will instantly recognize. Jonathan Rosen has slyly done his homework: He says that she steadfastly keeps herself at a specific weight and specifically includes her height. This would place her [TW weight] just at the borderline of a clinically underweight BMI. She is symbolically and literally hovering between ‘health’ and illness. When the story begins, she’s beginning her decline into the latter. This is never explicitly stated, but Ruth’s relapse seems connected with her growing emotional and sexual intimacy with Joseph, which has become stunted.
It would take too long to delicately capture the problem, but Joseph essentially becomes consumed by Ruth’s lack of consumption. As she pushes him away, Joseph begins to conceptualize the problem in a new light. Troubled by a reference he finds when reading her diary (I don’t condone this, but you somehow can’t resent it) and armed with a reading list supplied by a sage ex-analyst who knew Ruth as a teenager, he plunges headlong into the history of anorexia. He can’t reach her physically or emotionally—so he wades through the medium of her disease to find her.
This novel works, I think, for two reasons. Firstly, Rosen’s ‘syllabus’ is lovingly curated. Readers familiar with the subject will recognize heavyweights like Rudolph Bell and Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Less literal discussions through the prism of art, however, prove to be the most valuable and memorable. Secondly—and crucially—through an interwoven discussion of Keats’ concept of ‘negative capability,’ Rosen imbues Joseph with a capability for egoless desire. Anorexia is a disease of painful egoism (not egotism), as he accepts without judgment.
Furthermore, to truly appreciate this novel, there are two salient points about anorexia nervosa the reader must grasp. Firstly, there is a uniquely dogged pride that characterizes the relationship anorexics have with their illness. Secondly, it shapes the way they interact with all external stimuli. So, there is nothing that thrills the anorexic like a reference to anorexia—but the world can only be analyzed through the self-exaggerated function of starvation. As he researches, Joseph uncovers this stubborn desire to confound holiness with pathology when historically contextualizing the desire to not eat.
Ruth, who rages and squirms under the gaze of anyone concerned for her welfare, is not upset in the slightest when Joseph reveals his obsessive research of her obsession. She’s shyly flattered. Beyond that, she finds the idea quite natural: Why wouldn’t you want to know about the role religion and industrialization has had on female food refusal?! Again, Rosen is clever and never patronizing: He notes that while Ruth listens to Joseph’s findings, she can’t help but add her own commentary. She’s the professor making notes on his dissertation; she’s obviously read this all before. Joseph is desperately trying to understand why, in God’s name, would someone see their worth in their determination to starve. Meanwhile, it’s clear that Ruth has derived great comfort in seeing herself in these pages reflected back in wondrous shapes, like St Catherine.
It is noteworthy that he never talks to her about binging or purging, which is how his research originally began. Ruth’s binge-purging symptoms, present in some subtypes of anorexia, is a source of overwhelming shame and paralyzing fear. This is an area of the book that could have been developed more fully. Giving more attention to this aspect of Ruth’s illness would effectively tease out some of the ways in which we stigmatize binge eating and other nonrestrictive disordered behaviors. However, Joseph does muse that ‘you could binge without purging and purge without binging’ and that ‘one could… be sick almost without visible symptoms’ and ‘even be anorexic without being thin.’ This is perhaps the most vital misconception about anorexia that needs addressing: You can starve while at or above a clinically ‘healthy’ weight. Roughly 5% of people with eating disorders are underweight. Still, Joseph is preoccupied with Ruth’s weight. Some of the language and clinical terminology (e.g., EDNOS) are now outdated. This is important to keep in mind but does not detract from the value of the book, which was written in 1997.
Throughout the course of his research, Joseph never loses sight of Ruth’s perspective or reduces her to a theoretical goal. He is painfully self-aware and asks himself all the right questions: Am I selfish or sick for doing this? Can I possibly help her? He harbors no illusions that much of his desire to heal Ruth—for he’s honest about that, and this desire (in some ways actually quite feminine, partly maternal, partly sexual, and partly spiritual) is fueled by his failure to process his sister’s abrupt suicide ten years prior. He also approaches the problem not unlike a hardboiled detective trying to inhabit the skin of a serial killer. This is the basis of much of the novel’s characteristic humor. In a way, Joseph’s quest is also very Jewish—quite Talmudic. Sometimes, we search for the deepest answers not through meditation, but by studious application. If we just understand that one sentence, the mysteries of the universe will reveal themselves.
Ultimately, however, Joseph recognizes there is no single unifying solution that will explain or solve Ruth’s anorexia. He cannot ‘save’ Ruth, but he does not fail her, either—that’s the key to this story. Joseph offers something better than salvation: Support. And, with true grace, he realizes that the most appropriate form of support sometimes requires stepping back.
Rosen includes a quote from ‘The Hunger Artist’ as the book’s epigraph. He chose wisely. This is a book about the ‘appreciation’ of the ‘art’ of hunger and a weary admonishment to not frame it as such. ‘You’re a prisoner, but you’re also free,’ says Ruth.
Here is the ‘spoiler.’ The essential problem, the one that Joseph missed, is that Ruth needs to figure out how to not want hunger to set her free. And there is absolutely no answer. Anorexia is called ‘soul cancer.’ There is only a grueling lifelong effort to keep the illness at bay. But with a partner like Joseph, I can’t condemn her to an unhappy ending.
I recommend this book to everyone with a loved one affected by anorexia nervosa. It captures the less attractive and more abstract aspects of the disease. I’ve been genuinely surprised to see how distressing other people have found this book. From the outside, anorexia looks like the willful and systematic destruction of all that binds someone to this earth. Anorexics push people away—but we don’t want you to give up on us.
[TW: highly specific aspects of AN-P (purging subtype anorexia nervosa). I would recommend anyone with or in active recovery from an ED to exercise extreme caution before reading this book. ]
Eve’s Apple, however, is the canniest portrait of anorexia I’ve ever encountered. This was my opinion in 2006 and I retain it in 2023 upon re-reading it. This might be a slightly controversial opinion, as it’s told from the perspective of a man who, helplessly watching his partner slip back into anorexia, becomes fascinated by the disease.It is a mark of Rosen’s incredible talent that he avoids the fetishization of the anorexic and only anorexia nervosa itself.
Ruth and Joseph are a young, Ivy-educated Jewish couple in Manhattan who have recently moved in together. Ruth, who reached a perilously low weight as a teenager, has since kept herself in a state of quasi-recovery, as any person who’s had a whiff of the disease will instantly recognize. Jonathan Rosen has slyly done his homework: He says that she steadfastly keeps herself at a specific weight and specifically includes her height. This would place her [TW weight] just at the borderline of a clinically underweight BMI. She is symbolically and literally hovering between ‘health’ and illness. When the story begins, she’s beginning her decline into the latter. This is never explicitly stated, but Ruth’s relapse seems connected with her growing emotional and sexual intimacy with Joseph, which has become stunted.
It would take too long to delicately capture the problem, but Joseph essentially becomes consumed by Ruth’s lack of consumption. As she pushes him away, Joseph begins to conceptualize the problem in a new light. Troubled by a reference he finds when reading her diary (I don’t condone this, but you somehow can’t resent it) and armed with a reading list supplied by a sage ex-analyst who knew Ruth as a teenager, he plunges headlong into the history of anorexia. He can’t reach her physically or emotionally—so he wades through the medium of her disease to find her.
This novel works, I think, for two reasons. Firstly, Rosen’s ‘syllabus’ is lovingly curated. Readers familiar with the subject will recognize heavyweights like Rudolph Bell and Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Less literal discussions through the prism of art, however, prove to be the most valuable and memorable. Secondly—and crucially—through an interwoven discussion of Keats’ concept of ‘negative capability,’ Rosen imbues Joseph with a capability for egoless desire. Anorexia is a disease of painful egoism (not egotism), as he accepts without judgment.
Furthermore, to truly appreciate this novel, there are two salient points about anorexia nervosa the reader must grasp. Firstly, there is a uniquely dogged pride that characterizes the relationship anorexics have with their illness. Secondly, it shapes the way they interact with all external stimuli. So, there is nothing that thrills the anorexic like a reference to anorexia—but the world can only be analyzed through the self-exaggerated function of starvation. As he researches, Joseph uncovers this stubborn desire to confound holiness with pathology when historically contextualizing the desire to not eat.
Ruth, who rages and squirms under the gaze of anyone concerned for her welfare, is not upset in the slightest when Joseph reveals his obsessive research of her obsession. She’s shyly flattered. Beyond that, she finds the idea quite natural: Why wouldn’t you want to know about the role religion and industrialization has had on female food refusal?! Again, Rosen is clever and never patronizing: He notes that while Ruth listens to Joseph’s findings, she can’t help but add her own commentary. She’s the professor making notes on his dissertation; she’s obviously read this all before. Joseph is desperately trying to understand why, in God’s name, would someone see their worth in their determination to starve. Meanwhile, it’s clear that Ruth has derived great comfort in seeing herself in these pages reflected back in wondrous shapes, like St Catherine.
It is noteworthy that he never talks to her about binging or purging, which is how his research originally began. Ruth’s binge-purging symptoms, present in some subtypes of anorexia, is a source of overwhelming shame and paralyzing fear. This is an area of the book that could have been developed more fully. Giving more attention to this aspect of Ruth’s illness would effectively tease out some of the ways in which we stigmatize binge eating and other nonrestrictive disordered behaviors. However, Joseph does muse that ‘you could binge without purging and purge without binging’ and that ‘one could… be sick almost without visible symptoms’ and ‘even be anorexic without being thin.’ This is perhaps the most vital misconception about anorexia that needs addressing: You can starve while at or above a clinically ‘healthy’ weight. Roughly 5% of people with eating disorders are underweight. Still, Joseph is preoccupied with Ruth’s weight. Some of the language and clinical terminology (e.g., EDNOS) are now outdated. This is important to keep in mind but does not detract from the value of the book, which was written in 1997.
Throughout the course of his research, Joseph never loses sight of Ruth’s perspective or reduces her to a theoretical goal. He is painfully self-aware and asks himself all the right questions: Am I selfish or sick for doing this? Can I possibly help her? He harbors no illusions that much of his desire to heal Ruth—for he’s honest about that, and this desire (in some ways actually quite feminine, partly maternal, partly sexual, and partly spiritual) is fueled by his failure to process his sister’s abrupt suicide ten years prior. He also approaches the problem not unlike a hardboiled detective trying to inhabit the skin of a serial killer. This is the basis of much of the novel’s characteristic humor. In a way, Joseph’s quest is also very Jewish—quite Talmudic. Sometimes, we search for the deepest answers not through meditation, but by studious application. If we just understand that one sentence, the mysteries of the universe will reveal themselves.
Ultimately, however, Joseph recognizes there is no single unifying solution that will explain or solve Ruth’s anorexia. He cannot ‘save’ Ruth, but he does not fail her, either—that’s the key to this story. Joseph offers something better than salvation: Support. And, with true grace, he realizes that the most appropriate form of support sometimes requires stepping back.
Rosen includes a quote from ‘The Hunger Artist’ as the book’s epigraph. He chose wisely. This is a book about the ‘appreciation’ of the ‘art’ of hunger and a weary admonishment to not frame it as such. ‘You’re a prisoner, but you’re also free,’ says Ruth.
Here is the ‘spoiler.’ The essential problem, the one that Joseph missed, is that Ruth needs to figure out how to not want hunger to set her free. And there is absolutely no answer. Anorexia is called ‘soul cancer.’ There is only a grueling lifelong effort to keep the illness at bay. But with a partner like Joseph, I can’t condemn her to an unhappy ending.
I recommend this book to everyone with a loved one affected by anorexia nervosa. It captures the less attractive and more abstract aspects of the disease. I’ve been genuinely surprised to see how distressing other people have found this book. From the outside, anorexia looks like the willful and systematic destruction of all that binds someone to this earth. Anorexics push people away—but we don’t want you to give up on us.
[TW: highly specific aspects of AN-P (purging subtype anorexia nervosa). I would recommend anyone with or in active recovery from an ED to exercise extreme caution before reading this book. ]
Read
October 30, 2021I liked the nostalgia of a pre-cellphone book with Joseph spending time in the library to research, but I thought the way he obsessed over Ruth’s eating/body image was weird and he was terribly disrespectful toward her. Maybe he was coming from a place of wanting to save her, but it was horribly executed in his behalf and I didn’t like him as a person at all. I did sympathize with his regret over his sister’s suicide and I appreciated that he cared for Ruth, but I personally would never want a Joseph in my life.
That said, it is a beautiful, philosophical book on eating disorders and addresses the top uniquely… maybe a woman WANTING a man to save her would enjoy this book, but I’d hope no man would read it as an action map for handing a girlfriend with EDs.
That said, it is a beautiful, philosophical book on eating disorders and addresses the top uniquely… maybe a woman WANTING a man to save her would enjoy this book, but I’d hope no man would read it as an action map for handing a girlfriend with EDs.
February 19, 2024
2.5 stars
a hard book to read… the insights into eating disorders it gives were great (if heavy to read). i just feel like it tried to add too much to that with his sister, Ruth’s family issues and his own problems… it just got too convoluted. the many metaphors also overcomplicated the whole story
a hard book to read… the insights into eating disorders it gives were great (if heavy to read). i just feel like it tried to add too much to that with his sister, Ruth’s family issues and his own problems… it just got too convoluted. the many metaphors also overcomplicated the whole story
May 22, 2025
bushwick art girl/guy relationship is a crash out. surprise surprise!
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
September 1, 2025
Don’t bother reading.
August 10, 2020
My second time reading Eve’s Apple proved to be just as captivating as the first. This is a well-written and heart-wrenching story following Joseph, a young man who desperately wants to save his girlfriend Ruth from starvation and self-destruction. Fueled by his own co-dependence and painful past, Joseph delves deeper into the Ana/Mia mindset in his determination to set Ruth free from her disorder. My fascination with these real and flawed characters kept me invested throughout, despite the disturbing nature of the subject matter.
November 30, 2011
A book looking at a woman's eating disorder through the eyes of her boyfriend. So far I am interested but not, it is disturbing in ways. The woman likes to read case studies about her own disorder and I personally do not think that is going to help her. But I am going to plow on and hopefully she decides to get some help. I finished it, peculiar story indeed. It left a slight bitterness with me...
August 30, 2008
This was a wonderful book. There are many issues going on, but the main one is that the main character is suffering from an eating disorder. She has to learn to come to terms with her body and her boyfriend has to learn to come to terms with the reality of his girlfriend. It is really beautiful. I wouldn't recommend it if you are thinking about going annorexic though.
October 6, 2013
I found this book surprisingly gripping but hard to swallow (no pun intended). I think that there were a lot of superfluous descriptions and different threads to the story which the author failed to really weave together. I appreciated the author's attempt to explicate eating disorders but some of his philosophical theories came across as a didactic and, to me, far-fetched.
August 8, 2008
The ever-entertaining combination of anorexia and love . . . well-written and absorbing, not to mention perfect for those of us w/an unhealthy fascination with a scary but oh-so-slimming eating disorder!
March 21, 2016
Wow....I'm glad I finished this story. It was a bit triggering for me. I experienced a whirlwind of emotions. I even avoided reading the book at times because of all the emotions. I loved Joseph...I even got a bit protective of him at some points. Anywho...good love story.
August 5, 2012
A book I would recommend - if you could get through the topic. This book sat on my shelf for years and took three attempts to read before I was finally able to finish. Ronsen writes in a poetic language that is delicious to read but what he writes about is hard to chew.
August 4, 2014
This book is about eating disorders from the point of view of one both suffering from and in love with her disorder and her boyfriend who both wants her to get well, but wants to be a care taker savior to a sick lover.
Ah, the complications of our psyche !
Ah, the complications of our psyche !
March 19, 2007
Picked it up randomly because it was on sale...ended up really liking it. Insight into women's body image and anorexia but written by and from the perspective of a man. Interesting.
September 21, 2007
very important book about helping to understand not only anoerexia but also migraines !!!!
January 19, 2009
It certainly is eye-opening into the world of anorexia, and I feel like I learned from it in that way. But the trade off was the sex and language.
August 9, 2009
This is a great book and a fast read about a man living with his anorexic/bulimic girlfriend. It gives an interesting account of the disease.
June 18, 2013
Horribly true and beautifully written
December 28, 2012
Interesting, sad and an emotional experience. Wasn't pleasantly pleased with the ending.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews