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Title: Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self by Lori Gottlieb ISBN: 0-425-17890-0 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 10 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (106 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: As Amazing as "WASTED"!
Comment: Because I struggled with an eating disorder in high school and college (I'm now in my mid-20s), I've read a lot of memoirs on this subject with particular interest. A friend who also recovered from anorexia recommended STICK FIGURE to me, saying, "You'll see yourself in this girl. And you'll LOVE her as much as you want to help her." What she meant wasn't just the very realistic depiction of obsession and distorted thinking that occurs with an eating disorder, but the fact that because these are real diaries, we see the whole girl, not someone looking back and talking only about how many hours it took to eat an apple. In other words, we see a girl who's funny and smart and as impossible as your average adolescent, who just HAPPENS to also be falling into a devastating illness. (I wonder what the author is like now -- she was HILARIOUS as a kid.)
Most books about anorexics depict them as being incredibly controlling, compulsive, and monomanical about dieting - which they ARE - but that's usually ALL you see. Here, as in another great memoir, WASTED, you realize how complicated this illness can be. At times, Lori seems so "normal" -- even MORE "normal" than her friends and their dieting mothers. And you can really see how she's influenced by the attitudes around her, even though they don't "cause" her anorexia, they definitely contribute and add wry commentary on our media-driven culture.
Most people gave this book five stars, and if I could give it six stars, I would! I TOTALLY disagree with the two people who thought the book didn't depict Lori's recovery realistically -- I LIVED her recovery and really related to the book's ending -- it isn't all neat and tidy. If they thought she saw herself in the mirror and suddenly ate again, then they clearly missed what was going on in Lori's mind. What's so compelling about this book is how subtle the messages are -- you're in the mind of an adolescent, you're reading her journals, and every line seems to have some significance without hitting you over the head with a profound "epiphany."
Even for people who have no experience with eating disorders, I highly recommend this book. All the people in her life-- her parents, her brother, her friends, her teachers, her doctors -- actually make this a FUN book to read (tragic, too, obviously, but you'll laugh even as it's sad and frightening). The people in the book are "out there" yet so real at the same time (I think we had the same teachers!). It's not quite the Addams Family, but the Los Angeles family Lori grew up in isn't quite the Cleavers either.
If you loved "Wasted," you'll love "Stick Figure." And you might even learn something -- about yourself, about eating disorders, about the confusion of being a female teenager, and about the ridiculous pressures of our society -- along the way. But mostly, you'll just want to read it over and over again.
Rating: 5
Summary: THE TRUEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN ABOUT GROWING UP IN OUR CULTURE
Comment: This is one of the TRUEST and most hilarious books I've ever read about growing up in our culture. Even though I was never diagnosed with anorexia, I spent all of my teen years dieting and exercising and comparing my body to everyone else's much as Gottlieb writes about in her diaries. I didn't like obsessing about my body, but I felt I had no choice if I wanted to look good, or just fit in with my friends, or be liked by guys in high school and college. Even after college, all the women at work seemed to be on diets or skipping lunch or talking constantly about their bodies. And these women were supposed to be my mentors! I felt like I was reading my OWN diaires, I related to this book so much! Gottlieb really points out the ridiculous messages our culture sends women, and the danger in following all the "rules." Reading the actual words of a teenager trying to sort out her body image is much more powerful than any memoir I've read on this subject. I've recommended this book to all my friends, co-workers, my sister, my mother, and I recommend it to EVERYONE who has ever been a teenager in our society!
Rating: 5
Summary: Stick Figure Changes Minds
Comment: 1978 Lori Gottlieb has a new perspective on life. Every year she wishes to be thiner, usually on her birthday. Now her wish kicks into reality! She starts to get very skinny, too skinny. She gets a disease called anorexia and her parents start to worry. Her life goes down hill from there. I love this book because it taught me a couple of lessons. Don't judge people on the outside, judge people on the inside, and never try to change yourself. For readers like myself that only like to read real, deep, sad books, I recomand this to you. A girl just like you that really hits rock bottom.
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Title: Wasted : A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher ISBN: 0060930934 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 15 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Diary Of An Anorexic Girl : by Morgan Menzie ISBN: 0849944058 Publisher: W Publishing Group Pub. Date: 16 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $9.99 |
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Title: The Best Little Girl in the World by Steven Levenkron ISBN: 0446358657 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 07 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Second Star to the Right by Deborah Hautzig, Joy Peskin, S. November ISBN: 0141305800 Publisher: Puffin Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Hunger Point : A Novel by Jillian Medoff ISBN: 0060989238 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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