Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Written by Roxane Gay

Narrated by Roxane Gay

From the New York Times bestselling 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 readers 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9780062470256

Roxane Gay

ROXANE GAY is the author of several bestselling books, including Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, the essay collection Bad Feminist, the novel An Untamed State, the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti, and the graphic novel The Sacrifice of Darkness. She is also the author of World of Wakanda, for Marvel, and the editor of Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture and The Selected Works of Audre Lorde. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and has launched the Audacious Book Club and a newsletter, The Audacity.

Reviews for Hunger

[kathl33n-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully narrated. Like listening to an old friend.

[Wiraga IBG · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“Roxane Gay bares it all, in her book “Hunger” she tells us the story about her body, how she let herself eat alot since she was young to make herself bigger and bigger, to build a fortress, to protect herself from people who might hurt her, because she was hurt really bad as a teenager, she was raped. Human being is always vulnerable to traumas, people responds differently to traumas, what happened in your childhood effects what you become as an adult. Roxane, in this case, grow up into a sad and miserable person, as the world tends to discriminate against over-weight people. But fortunately she has a family that loves her no matter what. This book is written with natural and simple language, its like Roxane let us read her diary, with her darkest secrets in it. One thing that bug, Roxane’s writinh is too repetitious as she keeps telling us some thing over and over again. It could use some editing to make it more focus and cohesive.”

[Vanessa · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Victim or Survivor? Roxanne Gay tells us her story of being victimized and still learning how to persevere. Unfortunately the book was repetitive on thoughts and actions. I kept cheering for the author because I wanted her to have a more "bad ass" attitude towards her circumstances.

[anya_lichtenstein · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gay's memoir was raw, enlightening, honest, wonderful. this recording breezed by, despite the heavy subject matter.

[Sarah-Ann Ogilvie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A brilliant look at the human body and how we, with larger frames, experience the world and are perceived by others.

[Paula Oury · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Listening to her voice and hearing her words that I found so relatable, opened a pathway for myself think in new ways.
I’m so sorry we as women have to know these tones in life and have to fight so hard to beat them back.
This book opens wounds as well as gives hope and pathways to making peace within (for myself at least).

[tsg.adresse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ce livre est un classique dont j’ai entendu beaucoup de choses et quelques critiques négatives.
Je suis ravie d’avoir pu l’entendre, raconté par son autrice.

Il est poignant et personnel.
Je suis triste pour Mme Roxane Gay.

Ce livre a une portée éducative extrêmement importante afin de protéger les autres enfants. Votre travail pourra être mis au service de l’humanité Mme. Merci.

[Rhonda Cooley · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was emotionally touching. I enjoyed the memoir, but I think it tended to wander around and around toward the end. I used the audio book along with the e-book which made it go faster, but a great deal of this memoir could have been better organized in chronological order to reduce both the length and the rambling. Otherwise, I enjoyed the author sharing her story which I am sure was a painful way to heal.

[Jade Cerqueira · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very well written. I believe this is the 2nd book I've read by this author. Difficult to read at times. I enjoyed reading about her struggles and thoughts and how she managed to survive and start to heal.

[Raluca Tușa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

E o carte pt suflet, pt conștientizare și pt recunoașterea adevărului fata de propria persoana. M-am regăsit în multe ipostaze trăite de autoare. Recomand din tot sufletul !

[Jude Mulisya · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even though you don't like hugs, I'm sending you my support and gratitude and love. Thank you and I'm sorry and I do wish you strength and good fortune, Roxane

[Esi-June Mittee Adabunu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was therapeutic, beautiful and also very painful to read. Thank you for writing it Roxane.

[Haley Snyder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Some books feel like such an important addition to our culture. This is one of them. We could all learn how to be more aware of how one’s body impacts how they experience the world and how our experiences shape our bodies in both positive and negative ways. I love Roxane Gay for her honesty. I thank her for writing her truth.

[shana-gay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book. I enjoyed how she told her story. I admire her strength. I hope to write like you one day. I hope to own my truth and share it one day. Roxane thanks for sharing.
wording and imagery was very easy and simple to follow. The storyline was relatable and the speed and tone follow easily. there are so many topics of connection that can be drawn on and discuss in this book. this will be good for persons of all ages and stages to read.

[Adriana Martins · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Uma leitura muito impactante e dura. Mostra a realidade crua de uma mulher que sempre sofreu perante a sociedade e em relação ao seu próprio corpo. Com este livro percebemos (ainda mais) o que uma experiência traumática pode fazer a alguém e o quanto pode influenciar a sua vida.
Gostei como dá para refletir sobre que, o que é fácil e cómodo para uma pessoa magra, não o é para uma pessoa gorda.
O único problema foi que não me consegui sentir 100% conectada com a autora. Para mim, isso é um problema no que toca a não-ficção.

[Bre Herndon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Her story. Her truth. I felt and still feel an overwhelming sadness for her. While she has attained great success despite her trauma, she will never know what else could have been had her 12 year old self never been violated...and in the worst way. Her story further emphasizes how trauma, if not properly dealt with, impacts every aspect of your life. Wishing her a full healing.

[Shay King · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really eye opening. I admire Gay a lot for sharing such a raw, painful personal story. It also surprised me to see how much we had in common—I picked up this book to learn about other perspectives, but I realized we both experience unruly, although different, manifestations of trauma.

[Marzena Strzyżewska · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book shows many aspects of life in big body. The way we are seen, described, viewed and judged. Living with trauma is a never ending story, but I keep my fingers crossed for Roxane. And I do understand her perfectly.

[Sharon Moaze · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

lovely and real!
no fluff just truth spoken very well!

[Erin Holmes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you for sharing your story. Too many people in this world hide the very trauma you suffered as well and I hope that this book helps young women and men speak up about what happened to them so that their aggressors are brought to justice. Job well done.

[Kimi Sullivan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Truly such a special book. Even though my life looks very different from the author’s, I feel like I understand myself more and how I move through the world. Heading Roxane Gay read the memoir was also so special. She does a fantastic job.

[Dee Broderick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful telling of trauma and the lasting hurt that lingers. It provided so many insights into societal norms and judgements. I loved the humanity Gay portrayed. Magnificent writing.

[Dave Rudbarg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A valuable journey involving weight and race and rape and trauma and the impact all these truths have on people.

[Alikah Adair · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing, authentic, and unapologetically written and read! A must read.

[Brigette Villaseñor · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing. This book changed my life. Thanks Roxane Gay. <3

[Laura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you, Roxane, for sharing your story with the world.

[cat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read this, whatever your own bodystory is. You will learn so much and feel so much.

[Dexter Musarurwa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

your leap of faith was worth it and will change lives.

[Anayvette Martinez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This books hurts so good. Thank you Roxane for sharing your story & truth. ??✨?

[Hania · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Mine is not a success story. Mine is, simply, a true story.”

TW: Rape, fat-phobia, eating disorders.

Re-read this gem of a book for a book club in one sitting! Can’t remember the last time I finished a book in a day. I am always skeptical of re-reading my favourite books because I am never sure if my first impression of it will hold, but this one does not disappoint. Roxane Gay begins with a disclaimer that sets the tone for the rest of the book. It’s the raw honesty of how she has felt about her body and how others have made her feel about her body over the years is what I absolutely loved about it.

How do you survive the trauma of being raped at 12? Roxane walks us through the journey of a ‘victim’, as she prefers calling herself and not a survivor, and how she sought comfort in food by means of making her body undesirable. It is chilling to imagine the lengths she went to to transform her body into something that, for her, meant safety but for the world it did not fit conform to the conventional norms of what female bodies must look like.

Roxane talks about her relationship with her body, and how others have treated her because of how she appears and the struggles she has faced and still does in public. The lack of respect people have when it comes to personal space and the idea that they know better. At one point she talks about how people have been made her uncomfortable/miserable in planes because she takes up more space, if you ask me, what fantabulous luck would I have to be seated next to Roxane Gay, imagine the conversation!

There is so much to talk about in the book but I’ll say this: It’s an incredibly beautiful, powerful, heartbreaking and a brave piece of writing. Hunger is a stunning memoir, read it!