Review by Booklist Review
Three decades after Solitaire (1979), her memoir of struggling to overcome anorexia nervosa, Liu might be expected to discuss how it feels to be cured. Time, however, has given her a valuable perspective shared here in a careful deconstruction of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. From her own experience and interviews with many other women who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder, Liu now knows that anorexia and bulimia are lifelong companions. She and her informants have learned that, ebbing and flowing, sometimes moving to the fore but ever present in the background, an eating disorder responds to both good times and bad in a person's life. She quotes eating disorder experts (psychiatrists, physicians, research scientists, etc.) who explain how those who once succumbed to the urge to withhold or purge food are likely to be perched always atop a precipice, risking toppling into old habits when stress levels rise. Examining the disorder from the inside (the individual) out (to the family and society), Liu has created a solid resource. --Donna Chavez Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thirty years after Liu penned Solitaire documenting her teenage experience with anorexia nervosa, she recounts her midlife relapse and recovery. Liu exposes many myths surrounding eating disorders, with a combination of research and in-depth interviews with other former anorexics and bulimics. She interviews men and women of various cultural and economic backgrounds to refute the notion that anorexia and bulimia affect only "modern rich white girls." Liu's interviewees range from Rob, a 50-year-old physician, to Jessica, an Australian 25-year-old aspiring actress. Liu devotes many chapters to the impact of family on the anorexic or bulimic, contradicting the accepted belief that the victim is "the sick one"; rather, she locates the starting point of the disease in genetics, family life, shame and personality. Like other victims, Liu finds a history of mental disorders in her family, ranging from alcoholism to obsessive-compulsive disorder. According to Liu, a manifestation of an eating disorder is a call for help and should be treated as early as possible, and she fleshes out facts and statistics with her personal interviews, making this book poignant even for those who have not suffered from an eating disorder. (Feb. 22) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
