Hunger was such a powerful memoir. This book sees Roxane Gay unpack the realities of being a fat black woman and how her weight is linked to the sexual violence she experienced as a child.

Gay is incredibly vulnerable throughout this memoir as she details her gang rape, history of abusive relationships and deep struggles with self-worth. But throughout Gay also asserts her humanity despite the way the world treats her as invisible and less than others. Gay conveys so much honesty in her writing and because of that, I could deeply relate to some of the sentiments expressed. While I've never been super morbidly obese her experiences with self-hatred are still deeply familiar. I am too someone who's struggled with their body, who has desperately wished to take up less space who gained a lot of 

a chubby woman who has struggled with my body my whole life. who has wished desperately to take? up less space. who gained a fuck ton of weight in boarding school. 

Gay's writing is incisive and specific and painful at times to read. but beautiful and heartwrenching all the same. her insight into how society made her invisible as a fat woman was illustrated so elegantly and demonstrates her sharp eye as a cultural critique 

I especially appreciate the breadth of emotion Gay conveys in this book. I initially expected anger to be a central focus throughout but Gay equally addresses her shame and guilt. Her deep desire to be thin despite her feminist belief that women have value regardless of their size. This late sentiment was deeply relatable as someone who has oscillated into believing that happiness lies in being smaller. who still secretly despite trying not to sometimes indulges in that self-destructive thought. The deep unity I felt with gay in seeing those feelings reflect reelected in someone elsreassuringreasuring

Her writing is the perfect blend of informative yet artful. The running metaphor of hunger throughout gains so much scope. her literal hunger for food her hunger to hide her hunger to see all of its links together so evocatively 

The memoir itself is structured in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. with incredibly short chapters that follow interlinked narrative threads occasionally following a chronological progression but often hopping from thought to thought. While this style made Gay's writing often very human feeling reflecting the tangents we often spiral down. however casually throughout the reading experience, the chapters felt too fleeting with their sentiments a tad repetitive, and especially as we left the more chronological portion of her memoir I was in want of a tad more structure to the book. 

Ultimately what I most value bout hunger was the empathy it produced. reading about experiences foreign to my own and connecting with and learning about the ways people who move in bodies different from mine was an enriching experience