Be Bigger, Fight Harr: Roxane Gay On A Lifetime Of 'Hunger' : NPR

Contents:

• ROXANE GAY ON HUNGER, TRMA, AND THE UNLY BODY
• BE BIGGER, FIGHT HARR: ROXANE GAY ON A LIFETIME OF 'HUNGER'
• THE BOLDNS OF ROXANE GAY’S HUNGER
• ROXANE GAY’S COMPLITED “HUNGER”
• ROXANE GAY ON THE TRMAS OF THE BODY
• REVIEWS OF HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY
• ROXANE GAY: ‘NO ONE IS GUARANTEED LOVE OR AFFECTN’
• HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY REVIEW – ONE BODY’S LSONS FOR EVERYBODY
• EIGHT POWERFUL QUOT OM HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY

ROXANE GAY ON HUNGER, TRMA, AND THE UNLY BODY

At s simplt, ’s a memoir about beg fat — Gay’s preferred term — a hostile, fat-phobic world. A memoir that’s so brave, so raw, feels as if [Gay]’s entstg you wh her soulSeattle Tim. Gay turns to memoir this powerful reflectn on her childhood trmas…Timely and ronant, you n be sure that Hunger will touch a nerve, as so much of Roxane Gay’s wrg do.

BE BIGGER, FIGHT HARR: ROXANE GAY ON A LIFETIME OF 'HUNGER'

Gay ni that hers is a story of “triumph, ” but rears will be hard prsed to fd a better word.

In 88 short, lucid chapters, Gay powerfully tak rears through reali that pa her, vex her, gui her, and rm her work. And on nearly every page, Gay’s raw, powerful prose plants a flag, facg down s of shame and self-loathg by reclaimg the body she never should have had to lose. Gay says hers is not a succs story bee ’s not the weight-loss story our culture mands, but her breakg of her own silence, her movement om shame and self-loathg toward honorg and fivg and rg for herself, is self a profound Francis Chronicle.

THE BOLDNS OF ROXANE GAY’S HUNGER

“It’s the harst thg I’ve had to wre, and ’s the bt thg I’ve ever wrten, ” Roxane Gay said to a crowd gathered to hear her liver the PEN World Voic Ftival’s Arthur Miller Freedom to Wre Lecture. It was the kd of statement characteristic of Gay’s work: direct, arrtg, and unapologetic, the kd of statement that has ma her a New York Tim btsellg thor and cultural in.

Hunger is a wrenchg self-examatn which Gay analyz her body, and the weight she’s gaed rponse to her sexual asslt trma. The book begs as an acunt of her life, and clus Gay’s tramark mentary on popular culture, such as The Biggt Loser and the Kardashians. From the first page, Gay guarante no simple or happy nclns about weight loss or movg past trma.

“The story of my body is not a story of triumph, ” Gay says the send sentence of her book. Gay’s memoir is, stead, “about learng, however slowly, to allow myself to be seen and unrstood. Gay trac her plited relatnship wh her weight back to beg a victim of sexual asslt as a child.

ROXANE GAY’S COMPLITED “HUNGER”

The Boldns of Roxane Gay’s HungerIn her movg new memoir, the wrer explor sire, nial, and life an “unly body. At a time when there is no shortage of remendatns for women on how to disciple or make peace wh their bodi, Roxane Gay’s book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, stands out precisely bee she begs by clarg that she hasn’t overe her “unly body and unly appet.

” The story of Roxane Gay’s body did not beg wh this vlatn of her nocence, but was the acture that would e to fe her relatnship wh food, sire, and nial for s. Remend ReadgHunger builds on Gay’s wrg about femism, women’s bodi, and rape culture to unflchgly tackle personal experienc.

Or I do” and “I do not have an answer to that qutn, or I do, ” imply that Gay unrstands all too well a broar culture that ref to acmodate fat bodi and the rtrat required to scribe the slights she’s experienced wh Gay is grapplg wh a paful, first-person story, she gracefully weav the sharp mentary that she’s e to be known for. But what Hunger illumat is that food and the anonymy of wrg on the ter were two of the salv for the lonels and anxiety that enveloped Gay to her 20s. Its short, timate chapters follow Gay through the brokenns of her teens, the recklsns of the followg , and her current, ongog stggle to rencile the fact that beg an overweight black woman at tim mak her body a se for mentary and her humany visible.

ROXANE GAY ON THE TRMAS OF THE BODY

You are your body, nothg more, and your body should damn well bee is not the first time Gay has wrten about her weight, the asslt she experienced her youth, and the ways that society assigns value to women of her size. An Untamed State, a novel that some ways parallels Gay’s own experienc, follows a protagonist who is btally kidnapped and then raped. Bad Femist clud an say about Gay’s trip to fat mp, and untls says she’s prevly published onle—cludg “Breakg Uniform, ” and “My Body Is Wildly Undiscipled And I Deny Myself Nearly Everythg I Dire”—are reprted Hunger.

REVIEWS OF HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY

Last year she appeared on This Amerin Life, where she noted the difference between beg “Lane Bryant fat” and super-morbidly obe (the latter the clil term for Gay’s size) Hunger, she repeatedly juxtapos an herent, ternal nflict: the survival mechanism of makg herself bigger the years followg her rape and the ways which that very act has ma her life difficult a new way.

ROXANE GAY: ‘NO ONE IS GUARANTEED LOVE OR AFFECTN’

In one revealg sectn, Gay scrib the kds of exhstg nsiratns that she mak daily bee of her size—om googlg event venu to see if there are stairs, to worryg about airport seatg, to drsg mostly jeans and tton shirts, to wonrg whether a rtrant’s chairs will have arms that will pch her.

HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY REVIEW – ONE BODY’S LSONS FOR EVERYBODY

In a 2012 article for The Rump, Gay wrote that she is “always terted the reprentatns of strength women... In addrsg unwieldy topics such as weight, sexual vlence, and trma, Gay’s takeaways are many and her endg impossible to classify as a statn.

chapter that reads like a trailer for a future fact, Gay rarely wr scen—preferrg to foc on material that. Alas, the future, make sure you ask about payment polici up ont to protect to Roxane Gay at Gay is an endowed profsor of media, culture and femist studi at Rutgers, the thor of the forthg “Opns” and a ntributg Opn wrer.

More about Roxane GayA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn BU, Page 3 of the New York edn wh the headle: #MyBossMaMePostThisStupidJobListg.

EIGHT POWERFUL QUOT OM HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY

Gay says hers is not a succs story bee ’s not the weight-loss story our culture mands, but her breakg of her own silence, her movement om shame and self-loathg toward honorg and fivg and rg for herself, is self a profound victory. ” — Ron Charl, Washgton Post“Roxane Gay is the brilliant girl-next-door: your bt iend and your sharpt cric....

” — Tanvi Misra, Atlantic, "The Bt Book I Read This Year" Roxane Gay is the thor of the say llectn Bad Femist, which was a New York Tim btseller; the novel An Untamed State, a falist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the memoir Hunger, which was a New York Tim btseller and received a Natnal Book Crics Circle catn; and the short story llectns Difficult Women and Ayi.

AdvertisementSKIP GrabiecWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 14, 2017HUNGER A Memoir of (My) Body By Roxane Gay 306 pp. ”Roxane Gay’s lumo new memoir, “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, ” is a profound example of this theory praxis. At s most symphonic, ’s an tellectually rigoro and eply movg exploratn of the ways which trma, stori, sire, language and metaphor shape our experienc and nstct our dghter of prospero Haian immigrants (an engeer and a homemaker), Gay moved often growg up, but thought of Omaha as her home.