Delicacy: A Memoir about Cake and Death

by Katy Wix

Not eating was a way of attempting time travel. Every time I refused food, I was investing in my future self, a better me. Conversely, every time I binged, I was fixed on the past, because bingeing is always a message from a past self about trauma. Not eating is a rebellion against a grown-up body and a grown-up world. If binge-eating could speak, it wouldn’t have a future tense.

cakes should come in a plain brown box, like cigarettes, but marked ‘Cake’, and maybe what type of cake, but that’s it.

The last book you read before you die is like the type of coin that gets put under your tongue for Charon. It is mental substance for your journey, something to remember as you go on your way. When she meets the ferryman, in place of gold or silver she will be able to quote Audre Lorde, which I think will be more useful to her and will ensure safe passage.