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  • Hunger

  • A Memoir of (My) Body
  • Written by: Roxane Gay
  • Narrated by: Roxane Gay
  • Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (171 ratings)

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Hunger cover art

Hunger

Written by: Roxane Gay
Narrated by: Roxane Gay
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Publisher's Summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of Bad Feminist, a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

"I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere.... I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe."

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as "wildly undisciplined", Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past - including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life - and brings listeners along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved - in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.

©2016 Roxane Gay (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

What the critics say

"There's no better person to narrate this audio than Roxane Gay herself. Her calm, consistent inflections are juxtaposed with the content of the audiobook.... Her narration is filled with careful intentions - as if every single word stated and not stated explains her existence spatially.... Most of all, her story is felt because content and narration explore the concept of un/control of the body, self, and existence through her voice." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Hunger

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Probably would not recommend

I chose to listen to this book because I work with trauma survivors - some of whom struggle with weight issues- and I hoped to learn from Ms Gay and to understand these struggles more. I believe I did learn and I’m grateful for that.
However the chapter upon chapter of what to me sounded like teenage angst was very frustrating to listen to. For this reason I was relieved when the book ended.

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Out of touch

I went into this expecting to love it and wound up perplexed and disappointed. All I heard was a woman with immense privilege and opportunities trying to posit themselves as oppressed and I'm shocked this is considered progressive in any way. Class analysis is lost and we desperately need it back.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Overrated

I bought this book because of the great reviews, but I was not as blown away by it as other people seem to have been. Of course, Roxane’s horrific incident at 12 and the ways in which she tried to cope with it would touch anyone and elicit the deepest sympathies. For anyone to go through that, much less as a child, is a great burden to bear indeed. Roxane also has a deeply soothing voice, making the book generally a pleasure to listen to. However, although she makes some accurate observations about diet culture (e.g., how companies market thinness as happiness), I was annoyed and often angered by a lot of her comments regarding diet, exercise, and thinner people. She claims to be unhealthy not because of her weight but because of her high blood pressure (which is the result of…) and does not see exercise as anything but a means to lose weight (and hates seeing thinner people in the gym or achieving things on social media, because our existence apparently “mocks” her). A lot of the time, she does not take any real responsibility for her weight, and her conflicting desires to lose weight but maintain her armour is painfully irritating to the reader (or maybe that’s just me). Though she is open about her feelings about her body (and those feelings are, of course, valid), her victim mentality in all aspects of her life was really frustrating to listen to. I would not recommend this book for that reason.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow. Just WOW.

Thank you Roxane. This book is just amazing, eye opening and beyond remarkable. One of the best books I've read (listened to) ever.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Difficult story to hear

So many emotions came up for me during this book. It felt quite raw at times and I had to stop as I am a trauma survivor as well.
The chapters were so short that it felt disconnected at times. Other times I was happy she moved on.
I would recommend this book for anyone who is seeking self-acceptance and to love their body at any size.
For anyone who has experienced rape or sexual abuse please seek professional help.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of my favorite books.

Roxane Gay is a wonderful writer willing to share so much power and vulnerability in a way that the world needs more of.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected

I should have listened to the other reviews but this is not great. It’s weirdly unstructured, lots of sentences together without a flow. Also has a negative vibe, as others have said.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

AMAZING!!!

My goodness Roxanne, you have changed my life . it felt like these were my words.

Thank you for existing and sharing your story

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Phenomenal

Powerful, honest and relatable. Hearing her journey, she gave voice to all of my inner demons, all of the struggles that I face as a Woman of Size.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

hard truths, soft hope

This book was so uncomfortable to sit with and I even resented the author during much of the book for all I was feeling for her and myself. Still I was determined to finish it, to honor the story, her memoir, which she was courageous in penning and sharing. Hunger is such a generous offering by Gay and I am filled with soft hope for her continued un-destruction.

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