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Review
Poignant and timely...the most honest account of the illness yet published Glamour Bowman describes her descent into anorexia with clinical skill; if you haven't understood it before, you will now ... brave, revealing, and shocking -- William Leith Guardian A brilliant new memoir Sunday Telegraph Powerfully written, beautifully articulated, gripping. Bowman emerges as stubborn, brilliant, vulnerable, talented and a superb writer. She has readability by the bucketful Independent on Sunday 'Moving ... uniquely eloquent ... a must-read' Elle 'Dignified [and] lucid ... dedicated to debunking myths' Daily Mail 'A truly memorable account ... Very powerful' **** OK
Product Description
Bright, popular, pretty and successful, Grace Bowman had the world at her feet. So what drove her to starve herself nearly to death at the age of 18? And what, more importantly, made her stop? A grippingly honest account of life with anorexia nervosa, "A Shape of My Own" is Grace's hearbreaking, shocking and, finally, inspirational memoir. An extraordinary story, it is also a common one - is there a woman in the western world who has a normal relationship with food? It is a compulsive read, essential for anyone hoping to understand more about eating disorders and overcoming addiction.
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The growing-up house was perched on the slope of the hill, facing open landscapes which stretched to Grace's child's eye like squares on her drawing paper, plots in the distance, marking out unvisited areas, new imaginings. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The growing-up house was perched on the slope of the hill, facing open landscapes which stretched to Grace's child's eye like squares on her drawing paper, plots in the distance, marking out unvisited areas, new imaginings. Read the first page
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4.0 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest memoir of anorexia i have read thus far, April 14 2009
By L. Wallace "enigmatic literature connoisseur" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Shape Of My Own (Hardcover)
This has to be my ultimate favorite memoir of a young woman's gripping battle with anorexia. It has been weeks since I read this book, but I wanted to give me some space between reading it at writing my review. The author's writing style is unique and creative. She at times writes in third person as well as first person and at other times she even stops the story to interject very honest and helpful explainations. Her ability to describe her inner thoughts and conflicts at the same time as painting a picture of her outside interactions and experiences is amazing and very important.To be honest, I cannot say enough good things about this book to accurately explain how enraptured I am about this book. I think it is written in an extraordinary poignant way to the point of being one of the most important memoir's in the field of eating disorder literature. Ms. Bowman has captured what it is like to be consumed by an eating disorder and at the same time try to navigate in the world and attempt to interact with your loved ones, doctors, acquantances, and society as a whole all while trying your hardest to hide your inside thoughts, feelings and reasons for your disturbing behavior.
How do I express the impact this book has had on me and my life? I will be turning 40 years old shortly and I have had restrictive anorexia, purging anorexia since age 11. I have been in and out of hospitals and treatment centers, i have had therapy for more years than i ever should have. I should be recovered now with all the help I have had, but I am not. Somehow, Ms. Bowman has accomplished what has only been some sort of unreachable dream of mine. I would never have imagined someone writing such a gripping and accurate portrayal of having a severe eating disorder and what it is like inside the mind of the sufferer and outside trying to live in a world that refuses not to be judgemental. Ms. Bowman captures somewhat it is I am trying to say on page 240 of her book, "That is the odd thing about anorexia: it is seen to vanish when the body is mended. It moves from body-side to inside, and perhaps it is more dangerous when it cannot be seen." I found this to be the absolute truth in my life, which may be one reason why I am still wearing my anorexia on the outside, even though I have had times when it wasn't so much seen, but instead the discrepancy between my body and my mind's identity was so vast that I had to do what it took to be able to feel more congruent.
I wish I had the bravery, resiliency, and the strength of Ms. Bowman to recover. She is a remarkable and talented woman. I am honored to have had the experience to read her story and read her thoughts. I highly recommend this book and give thanks to such a tenacious young woman for writing it.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
I just didn't get it at all..., Feb 21 2011
By Losin' It - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Thin (Paperback)
Yes, this is a story of a young woman battling an eating disorder. I think...she talks about wanting to be thin, restricting her intake, her diagnosis and then she is recovered because she decided she no longer wanted to be anorexic.I think this account is a somewhat dangerous view of anorexia. She does not go into what her treatment plan really was; what her therapy sessions really entailed; or what really made her to get well. She says she "got bored" with it and just decided to stop.
Eating disorders are an illness. It baffles me when I hear of young, naive, girls saying they wish they could be anorexic, or bulimic, or whatever...it doesn't work that way. One does not really make a conscious choice to fall deep into the throws of anorexia. It is a painful, disturbing place to be.
Likewise, I find it very difficult that one can just say "I'm bored of anorexia. I think I'll stop now."
I am very sure there is much more to Ms. Bowma's story than that. There has to be. But this book fails to go into the real emotions and feelings that haunt a person with an eating disorder. If you want a read that truly goes into the nitty-gritty of these disorders I would recommend "Wasted" by Marya Hornbacher.
As a recovering anorexic, I wish I could have just said "I don't feel like doing this anymore." and POOF! It was over. Unfortunately for me, and most anorexics, that doesn't happen. Maybe most of us are not as emotionally strong as this woman, but going through recovery with little or no professional help, I believ, is very dangerous. I think it is an irresponsible story to tell...to imply to people with eating disorders, "hey, just stop doing it. It's that simple." is a very dangerous implication. It took years of therapy and emotional healing to get to where I am today with my illness. I consider myself fully recovered, but there is always that haunting image that follows me. and there is no way I could have done it without the help of a team of experienced professionals. Yes, Ms. Bowman does suggest to seek help, but her overall tone of the book is that she did not need it. She was strong enough to do it on her own. Good for her, but I have a hard time swallowing that. This book just didn't seem to portray the real emotion and heartache that one would go through in such a situation.
More than the content being vague and lacking emotion, I found the writing style confusing and somewhat annoying. The author jumps from one tense to another and I was frequently lost as to what stage of her disorder or recovery, or even her life, that she was in.
I wouldn't recommend it.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An extremely powerful memoir by a courageous woman..., Aug 7 2009
By Melissa Galligan "Melissa G" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Thin (Paperback)
"Thin" is a memoir about a woman suffering from anorexia nervosa. Unlike so many other memoirs or autobiographies on the subject, Ms. Bowman doesn't glorify or glamorize this disease. She writes with an unflinching style, much like Marya Hornbacher did with her infamous "Wasted," and perhaps gives the reader an even deeper insight (than Hornbacher did) into what goes on in the mind of an anorexic. I found myself unable to put this book down. It is also a book filled with hope. Ms. Bowman "found" a cure (or at least a way to cope) within herself, and despite seeing several professionals in the mental health field, made the ultimate decision to go it alone and I absolutely applaud her bravery. There is one caution I would give about the memoir, and that is its 'triggering' nature...but I believe ANY memoir that is honest is going to be triggering to the eating disordered population. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to understand anorexia, and absolutely recommend it to the "experts." (Though the experts are typically too wrapped up in their own egos to take advice from one who is suffering, even one as insightful as Ms. Bowman.) Also, I must take issue with the title of the book, which is too trite and meaningless for the content. I see that the original was called "A Shape of My Own" which is much more apt, and I wonder if Ms. Bowman had anything to do with the change--my guess would be that she did not. I applaud you, Ms. Bowman, and want you to know your book touched me in ways I cannot express.
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