Hunger

 Roxanne Gay has written quite a few books including Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. This book was interesting, alarming, and honest. Roxanne's parents immigrated from Haiti. Her father was an engineer working at a cement company and her mother was a stay at home mom. She had a couple of younger brothers. The family was quite affluent. Her mother was a good cook and the meals were made from scratch and healthy. When Roxanne was 12 she was invited to a shack in the woods near her house by a boy she liked. When she arrived she found him there with his six friends, their breath all smelling of beer. Her friend was not her friend. He was the first to rape her while the other boys held her down. Roxanne's life was forever changed. She thought this incident was her fault. She never told her family what happened until she was over 30 years old. Instead she turned to hunger. Roxanne figured if she got fat enough she would not be attractive to men. Even 12 year old girls know that men prefer slim women. Her parents tried to help her. They took her to doctors. They sent her to fat camp for 2 weeks. Nothing seemed to help. After graduating from high school she was admitted to Yale. After 3 years at Yale she ran away. Without telling anyone where she was going she moved to Arizona, to Minnesota, going from state to state and moving in with strangers. She got involved in drugs, alcohol, and bulimia. The decade of her 20's was the worst in her life. Her parents hired private detectives to find her. They asked her little brother to call her because they knew she wouldn't hang up on him. Eventually things turned around. With the help of her loving parents and family she finished her degree and got a master's degree. Roxanne is a feminist writer who tours the country giving talks and lectures. She is a large woman. She is six feet and three inches tall so of course she is large. Roxanne is an excellent writer so I think I may borrow more of her books.