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A review by stinamirabilis
Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia by Harriet Brown
1.0
I'm going to begin with the one aspect of this book that was actually good: Harriet Brown's journalistic background. It was clear that she consulted a huge variety of sources, and particularly the information on the neurochemical and biochemical processes in an eating disordered individual made for very interesting and informative reading, something that I think most other eating disorder memoirs lack.
Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only good point.
Before even beginning this I felt a bit squeamish at the idea of a woman writing a memoir about her experiences of her daughter's eating disorder. I can't really think of a better way to make something so completely about oneself, when really the focus should be on the daughter. She spends so much time reassuring the reader that she's not like "those other mothers" of children with eating disorders, insists that she isn't overbearing and controlling and helicoptery as is so often the case in families with eating disordered children - and then goes on to demonstrate exactly how ridiculously overbearing she is. Her daughter Kitty, is fourteen years old - not an adult, sure, but certainly not a small child either, and yet that is exactly the way Harriet treats her. She is depicted as a baby. If this book had been written by my mother about me, I'd be mortified.
Harriet also insists over and over that Family-Based Treatment is the best option for eating disorders, and I strongly disagree, particularly for those helicopter mums, which Harriet so clearly is, in spite of her insistence to the contrary.
Just, basically, I am mortified by this entire book. So much secondhand embarrassment.
Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only good point.
Before even beginning this I felt a bit squeamish at the idea of a woman writing a memoir about her experiences of her daughter's eating disorder. I can't really think of a better way to make something so completely about oneself, when really the focus should be on the daughter. She spends so much time reassuring the reader that she's not like "those other mothers" of children with eating disorders, insists that she isn't overbearing and controlling and helicoptery as is so often the case in families with eating disordered children - and then goes on to demonstrate exactly how ridiculously overbearing she is. Her daughter Kitty, is fourteen years old - not an adult, sure, but certainly not a small child either, and yet that is exactly the way Harriet treats her. She is depicted as a baby. If this book had been written by my mother about me, I'd be mortified.
Harriet also insists over and over that Family-Based Treatment is the best option for eating disorders, and I strongly disagree, particularly for those helicopter mums, which Harriet so clearly is, in spite of her insistence to the contrary.
Just, basically, I am mortified by this entire book. So much secondhand embarrassment.