2020: Roxane Gay is amazing and this book just raised her up in my esteem even higher than she was already.

I read Difficult Women earlier this year, but I wish I had read Hunger first. It would have been nice to connect more of those parallels between the fictional stories and Gay's real experiences living in rural towns.

It was repetitive at times. I NEVER think about my body this much. And I think that's mostly the point that Gay wants the reader to take away from this book. I don't have to think about my body all the time, because the world is set up for me to exist without any adjustments required.

Also, I'm thinking about how I started 2020 reading Know My Name (a memoir about rape) and I'm finishing my year reading Hunger (also a memoir about rape). It's fucking devastating that both of these incredibly strong and amazing women both had to suffer the lifelong trauma that comes from rapists. I am awed and amazed at the vulnerability required to share their stories with us, and I am ever so grateful that they did.

I follow Gay on the internet now, and got to watch her and her new wife (!) speak at the Adobe Max Conference this year. So although this memoir has made it clear that the pain and trauma that the boy who raped her will never REALLY go away, I'm very happy that it has gotten BETTER. At least, according to her Instagram.