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emwebster's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Mental illness
demo's review
4.5
cw: eating disorders, mental illness
When I picked up this book I had no idea it was by an Australian, let alone one from Sydney. Then came the uncanny parallels of living in the same area, frequenting the same cafes, bars, bookstores and shopping centres, studying the same subjects (though 10 years later) at the same university in the same buildings, visiting the same places and cafes in Berlin on our travels there, and other unexpected details. Wright's descriptions of all these things fit perfectly with my own experiences. I even recognised someone I know in the acknowledgements. Weird. Imagining her experiences taking place against the backdrop of my own life made the idea of disordered eating and anorexia more tangible and knowable, if you will, to me than it has been before.
Small Acts... is content-rich but not dense, my favourite kind of writing to read. I found Wright's research into all different aspects of hunger fascinating, the literal and the figurative, the scientific and the poetic. I learned about the myriad ways anorexia can manifest itself, but also about the patterns of thought and behaviour common to nearly all who live with it. Wright's wit, her capacity to observe, to analyse and relay these things, to articulate, they all inspire a weird kind of jealousy. Not to have lived her experiences or her sufferance, but to be able to express my own with such acuity.
One of the reasons I read is to become a better writer. This book makes me want to write. This book makes me want to write well.
When I picked up this book I had no idea it was by an Australian, let alone one from Sydney. Then came the uncanny parallels of living in the same area, frequenting the same cafes, bars, bookstores and shopping centres, studying the same subjects (though 10 years later) at the same university in the same buildings, visiting the same places and cafes in Berlin on our travels there, and other unexpected details. Wright's descriptions of all these things fit perfectly with my own experiences. I even recognised someone I know in the acknowledgements. Weird. Imagining her experiences taking place against the backdrop of my own life made the idea of disordered eating and anorexia more tangible and knowable, if you will, to me than it has been before.
Small Acts... is content-rich but not dense, my favourite kind of writing to read. I found Wright's research into all different aspects of hunger fascinating, the literal and the figurative, the scientific and the poetic. I learned about the myriad ways anorexia can manifest itself, but also about the patterns of thought and behaviour common to nearly all who live with it. Wright's wit, her capacity to observe, to analyse and relay these things, to articulate, they all inspire a weird kind of jealousy. Not to have lived her experiences or her sufferance, but to be able to express my own with such acuity.
One of the reasons I read is to become a better writer. This book makes me want to write. This book makes me want to write well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Mental illness
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