Roxane Gay

An excellent collection of essays spanning "current" (about 2015-2023) events, politics, social justice, celebrity culture, art appreciation, feminism, self-expression, and more. This was my first time reading anything by Roxane Gay and I'm a little annoyed with myself for waiting so long to prioritize something of hers. I appreciate her frank writing style, which is also sprinkled with a bit of humor. I highlighted quite a few passages - there was just a lot in this collection that spoke to me. Looking forward to reading more of her work!… (más)

If you’ve ever experienced a hunger for something to fill the gaping hole inside you, you need to read this book. Roxane Gay writes about her relationship with her body and food, but anyone who’s ever snuck drinks or cigarettes or any number of unhealthy things into their bodies and then felt the disgust and shame afterwards, will find solace with her story.

On a second note, if you’re someone who is related to, in love with, married to, or friends with someone who is fat/obese/overweight (whatever you want to call it), you need to read this. I am not overweight, but there are people in my life whom I love with all my heart that either are or were at one time. There are concerns and humiliations and feelings I knew about from being close with them, but Gay opened my eyes to the fact that I only see the tip of the iceberg. How many times have I said something or done something insensitive and not realized? This is how change starts. With honesty. Then learning from that honesty and responding with compassion. If I take one thing away from this book it’s that. More compassion for myself and my own hunger (which I may not satiate with food, but trust me I have my vices) and hopefully more consideration for others.… (más)

Roxane Gay is brilliant, readable and important in the struggles for women and blacks and I whipped through her book, yet I grew weary and dejected just as she did telling her tragic story. Her writing does spur one on even if there is a swathe of hopelessness about her recovering from the gang rape suffered at twelve. Yet I kept reading, fascinated by the depth of her confessions and laying bare of her pain and loneliness, and her self-understanding. It's what we're encouraged to do in memoir but how difficult it is.

"I do not want pity or appreciation or advice. I am not brave or heroic. I am not strong. I am not special. I am one woman who has experienced something countless women have experienced. I am a victim who survived."… (más)