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  • Wasted

  • A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
  • Written by: Marya Hornbacher
  • Narrated by: Marya Hornbacher
  • Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (31 ratings)

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Wasted

Written by: Marya Hornbacher
Narrated by: Marya Hornbacher
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Publisher's Summary

Precociously intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and ambitious, Marya Hornbacher grew up in a comfortable middle-class American home. At the age of 5, she returned home from ballet class one day, put on an enormous sweater, curled up on her bed, and cried because she thought she was fat. By age 9, she was secretly bulimic, throwing up at home after school, while watching Brady Bunch reruns on television and munching Fritos. She added anorexia to her repertoire a few years later and took great pride in her ability to starve.  

Marya's story gathers intensity with each passing year. By the time she is in college and working for a wire news service in Washington D.C., she is in the grip of a bout of anorexia so horrifying that it will forever put to rest the romance of wasting away. Down to 52 pounds and counting, Marya becomes a battlefield: her powerful death instinct at war with the will to live.

Why would a talented young girl go through the looking glass and slip into a netherworld where up is down, food is greed, and death is honor? Why enter into a love affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Marya Hornbacher sustained both anorexia and bulimia through five lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss of family, friends, jobs, and ultimately, any sense of what it means to be "normal." 

In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she recreates the experience and illuminates the tangle of personal, family, and cultural causes underlying eating disorders. Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to the darker side of reality, and her decision to find her way back again - on her own terms. 

©1998 Marya Hornbacher (P)1998 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

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What listeners say about Wasted

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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

Beautifully written, honest, and engaging... wish it wasn’t abridged.

This is a beautiful and heartbreaking memoir. While the story was terribly depressing, I respect the bare honesty of the author, it was refreshing. The writing was soulful and dazzling. My only complaint is that the audiobook is abridged. It feels as though much of the story is being left out. Furthermore, the quality is terrible! While I love the performance itself, and appreciate the fact the author did it herself, which made the experience so incredibly personal, the recording sounds like a message left on an answering machine. Overall, it was a fascinating read and if the book itself is not an option, I would recommend the audiobook as a second choice.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good

An important look at what anorexia & bulimia do in a life. also a peak at the duplicitous methods to cover the illness.

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