Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

by Roxane Gay

Sometimes we try to convince ourselves of things that are not true, reframing the past to better explain the present.

He said/she said is why so many victims (or survivors, if you prefer that terminology) don’t come forward. All too often, what “he said” matters more, so we just swallow the truth. We swallow it, and more often than not, that truth turns rancid. It spreads through the body like an infection. It becomes depression or addiction or obsession or some other physical manifestation of the silence of what she would have said, needed to say, couldn’t say.

The story of my life is wanting, hungering, for what I cannot have or, perhaps, wanting what I dare not allow myself to have.

I knew I had to wait until it was offered, each and every time. I had to be grateful for what was offered.

Why do we view the boundaries people create for them selves as challenges? Why do we see someone setting a limit and then try to push?