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| Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.) |
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| Anorexia Books from Amazon |
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Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)
List Price: $13.95
Amazon Price: $6.98
Average Customer Rating:  (396 reviews)
Editorial Review: "I fell for the great American dream, female version, hook, line, and sinker," Marya Hornbacher writes. "I, as many young women do, honest-to-God believed that once I Just Lost a Few Pounds, suddenly I would be a New You, I would have Ken-doll men chasing my thin legs down with bouquets of flowers on the street, I would become rich and famous and glamorous and lose my freckles and become blond and five foot ten." Hornbacher describes in shocking detail her lifelong quest to starve herself to death, to force her short, athletic body to fade away. She remembers telling a friend, at age 4, that she was on a diet. Her bizarre tale includes not only the usual puking and starving, but also being confined to mental hospitals and growing fur (a phenomenon called lanugo, which nature imposes to keep a body from freezing to death during periods of famine).
Customer Reviews:
1 of 1 found this review helpful:
 Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, 2008-04-18
Marya Hornbacher is the mediator between the everyday human being and the world's most widely misunderstood creatures of society: the eating-disordered. In "Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia", she explains to readers that eating disorders are not just "phases" that teenage "girls" go through, but rather an intense, passionate desire for power that "strips you of all power" instead.
Hornbacher, a freelance journalist who is also the author of "The Center of Winter" and "Madness: A Bipolar Life", developed bulimia at age nine, developed alcohol and drug issues at the age of thirteen, and became anorexic at the age of fifteen. After her release from a residential treatment hospital, she attended the University of Minnesota and wrote for the local paper, accepting her scholarship to American University later in 1992. She later developed other physical problems following her continued eating disorders.
Although a rather sullen story of the highs and lows of her struggle with weight, Hornbacher addresses the point that eating disorders, cultural obsession with weight and body, food, and control have a lot in common. In one section of the book, she writes that an eating disorder is
1 of 1 found this review helpful:
Marya wasn't always the way she is today, 2008-04-17
Marya wasn't always the way she is today. She used to be the all American girl eating PB and J's while she watched her cartoons, but when Marya was eight years old something in her brain changed and since then she has never been the same.
Author Marya Hornbacher beautifully illustrates her struggles with bulimia and anorexia in her autobiography Wasted. She shows a world that people hardly get to see and explains the life and ways of bulimics and anorectics that is both compelling and inspiring.
Wasted takes you through 10 years of Marya's life as she slowly jumps back and forth between anorexia and bulimia. It depicts the everyday struggles of the disease; how the body slowly stops to care about what is occurring, the constant worries about food, and the fear that someone might find out and God forbid, possibly try to help you! It goes in depth about the psychological factors of the disease and explains it all in a way that is understandable and relevant. This book will both shock and sicken you as you discover what goes behind closed doors of these two heartless diseases.
My praise is endless for this novel and I thank it for opening my eyes to the mysterious world that is impossible to fully understand unless you've experienced the ordeal first hand. Many people could benefit from taking the time to read Wasted, which will help to clue people in and provide a better understanding to the problems in our society and what goes on to the people who are enduring these struggles daily. However this book is not a constant thriller and amongst the eye opening and realization moments there will be a few parts that are tedious and almost seem to drag on. In spite of the occasional drowsy sections this book offers an incredible insight inside the secret lives of bulimics and anorectics and I would confidently recommend it to anyone who wants a brilliant and inspiring read.
0 of 0 found this review helpful:
 deep and true, 2008-04-08
The author dives deep into her life and the choices she made. She doesn't hold back. Up front and personal.
0 of 0 found this review helpful:
Very well written, 2008-04-02
This book is amazing, it keeps you captavated from the time you start to read it. Im recovered and the things she discribed are so very true. If your looking for a book on eating disorders this is one of very few to read. Dont listen to the negitive reveiws for this one, Its well worth the money.
0 of 0 found this review helpful:
excellent biography, 2008-03-22
As a mother to a teenage girl with an eating disorder, I was able to identify (sometimes uncomfortably too close to home) with Marya Hornbacher. It was a good insight to see that this horrible illness begins at a very early age, how not to blame ourselves as parents, and how it is a daily battle for the person with the illness.
I read this book over a period of a week and haven't stopped remarking on it to people I know, especially other parents of children/teenagers with eating disorders.
This book came from the gut and goes directly into the readers'.
Adina
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