Reviews

Hunger: An Unnatural History by Sharman Apt Russell

ablot's review against another edition

unbearable self-important prose. more like a piece of creative nonfiction than something genuinely informative about hunger. i about made it to the end but i just couldn’t do it anymore. really insufferable writing.

nramlal1's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

2.75

caustic_moomoo's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.0

katesusko's review against another edition

2.0

I only give this two stars because I only selected a few chapters to read, but what I did read was very interesting. The Minnesota Project chapter was fascinating

lizmart88's review against another edition

Didn't finish this one. It was interesting, I just had too many other things going on. I'll get back to it.

eliser217's review against another edition

2.0

Definitely an interesting read. Chapters about the history of hunger are woven through the author's own narratives. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "hunger artists," which I had never heard about before I read the book.

egoubet's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed most of this book, but some chapters didn't hold my attention. I think that she could have developed the psychological aspects of hunger more - instead this book was mostly cold and factual.

captainsunbeam's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad

3.75

woowottreads's review against another edition

2.0

I didn't finish. Looking at the reviews makes me want to skip to the middle chapters. But so far, in the first three chapters, I'm dying here. So much use of the passive verb. This book seems to be the author's attempt at poetic prose, but it's unbearable. It's vague at best, confusing and pointless at worst. The author makes lovely assumptions about weight and health that shows me she hasn't read up on recent findings. A couple of things she said regarding syndromes made me want to throw the book. It's like unbearable literary nonfiction. I can't handle literary fiction, but literary nonfiction might be worse. At least, when it's a half-arsed attempt at pretentious poetics. Ugh. I wanted history, not this writer's vanity project. The reviews on the back went on and on about how her writing is art. It's worse than bad art: It's annoying, pretentious art too busy showing off to actually get to any point. Bleah.

scallopbunny's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0