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heatherg213's review against another edition
3.0
In her 1995 novel of self-acceptance, The Passion of Alice, Stephanie Grant paints a picture of a young woman stuck-not able to move forward with her life, and slowly fading away to nothingness. Alice is a 25 year old librarian who is hospitalized at the eating disorders clinic at the well-known Seaview Hospital after a heart attack caused by her extreme thinness. At 89 pounds and 5'10" tall, Alice feels that she is starving herself down to her very essence, shedding everything not about her that is not essential. While at the hospital, she begins to gain weight while getting to know Gwen, a frail timid anorexic; Louise, a grossly overweight woman who is a compulsive eater; and finally Maeve, a risk-taking bulimic who forces Alice to confront her sexuality. When Maeve escapes the hospital, Alice has her second brush with death, and when she gets a visit from an old friend, she finally realizes that in order for her to move forward with her life, she must accept all parts of herself. She cannot starve away her feelings.
If this sounds a little bit like the gay version of Girl, Interrupted, you're not wrong. It felt a bit like the gay version of Girl, Interrupted. However, many of the things that made the book Girl, Interrupted powerful are also present in this story. Grant focuses not so much on the disease of anorexia as the reasons for Alice's starvation. When Alice goes to chapel on week, she shares with the nurse that escorts her that "passion" also means "suffering", and that becomes the major underlying theme of the book. Anything that causes Alice to feel passionate also causes her suffering. Trying to live up to her mother's expectations, her feelings about women and sex, her desire for food that she knows she won't eat. Her anorexia becomes a way to control her passions, essentially trying to starve the feelings away until she is left with nothing but her most essential essence. What she discovers is that her feelings, especially her feelings about women and sex, are an essential part of her.
Loss of innocence and maturation is also a recurring theme throughout the book. For Alice, that means coming out of a state of willful ignorance about herself-basically, she figures out it's time to put her big girl pants on and get on with things! To some extent it feels as though most of the women on the unit are having a similarly hard time integrating into adulthood-even the ones who have been chronological adults for quite some time. Their reactions to each other, their petty fights, their childish behavior when in public all lead to this sense of them being childlike. The implication seems to be that perhaps the first step in being healthy was to grow up. This can mean confronting some harsh realities-like when one of the doctors catches them off-grounds and offers to trade his silence for sex.
There is less accusation against the psychiatric community in this novel than in similar books, but as the example above shows not everyone in the hospital is portrayed in a positive light. What the setting of the hospital did for me was provide a symbol of the way in which society tries to define what is healthy and normal, and how anyone outside of that definition is considered broken and in need of fixing. It is my sincere hope that we are finally getting to a point in our country where gays and lesbians are no longer seen as broken, but are fully accepted for who we are.
If this sounds a little bit like the gay version of Girl, Interrupted, you're not wrong. It felt a bit like the gay version of Girl, Interrupted. However, many of the things that made the book Girl, Interrupted powerful are also present in this story. Grant focuses not so much on the disease of anorexia as the reasons for Alice's starvation. When Alice goes to chapel on week, she shares with the nurse that escorts her that "passion" also means "suffering", and that becomes the major underlying theme of the book. Anything that causes Alice to feel passionate also causes her suffering. Trying to live up to her mother's expectations, her feelings about women and sex, her desire for food that she knows she won't eat. Her anorexia becomes a way to control her passions, essentially trying to starve the feelings away until she is left with nothing but her most essential essence. What she discovers is that her feelings, especially her feelings about women and sex, are an essential part of her.
Loss of innocence and maturation is also a recurring theme throughout the book. For Alice, that means coming out of a state of willful ignorance about herself-basically, she figures out it's time to put her big girl pants on and get on with things! To some extent it feels as though most of the women on the unit are having a similarly hard time integrating into adulthood-even the ones who have been chronological adults for quite some time. Their reactions to each other, their petty fights, their childish behavior when in public all lead to this sense of them being childlike. The implication seems to be that perhaps the first step in being healthy was to grow up. This can mean confronting some harsh realities-like when one of the doctors catches them off-grounds and offers to trade his silence for sex.
There is less accusation against the psychiatric community in this novel than in similar books, but as the example above shows not everyone in the hospital is portrayed in a positive light. What the setting of the hospital did for me was provide a symbol of the way in which society tries to define what is healthy and normal, and how anyone outside of that definition is considered broken and in need of fixing. It is my sincere hope that we are finally getting to a point in our country where gays and lesbians are no longer seen as broken, but are fully accepted for who we are.
robynryle's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't like this book much at first, mainly because I felt I was one of the fat people whom the author found so disgusting. Since she's an anorexic, she has a pretty broad definition of fat. But it got much interesting once she meets Maeve, a bulimic, and she becomes a lot more sympathetic. Didn't like the ambiguous ending.
gr33nb00ks's review against another edition
4.0
This book was very a very unique look into the mind of of Alice, a 25 year old girl admitted to an eating disorder treatment center in a hospital, and her mental health during her stay. I enjoy reading books like this because they seem to reach a part of my heart that stays with me long after I've read them. I will be talking more about this book in my August 2017 wrap-up on my youtube channel!
claire60's review against another edition
3.0
Nominated for book groups otherwise I'm not sure I would have found it, this book is a likeable easy read which given that its a story of a young woman with anorexia in rehab is no mean feat. The story is very much from Alice's perspective, with no apologies or explanation. Nor is it a this is how you get cured book. Both of these things contribute to making the book and easy interesting read. There are some very subtle messages about the way women's bodies are perceived and how it leads to the various eating disorders, I appreciated the clever way this was done.
jcansdale's review against another edition
4.0
Well written story centering on women with eating disorders. Interesting tie-ins to Catholicism. Fascinating characters. Disappointing ending.
florenz's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I'm not sure where to start with this book. Often unrealistic with the events that happened, shocking even. The ending felt a little abrupt. I wanted to know if Alice recovered, though deep down I think she did not. It was very graphic and thus hard, at times. It really is heartbreaking to read about people who don't love themselves enough to take care of themselves. Then again, this is a very real thing that happens. I suppose this book made me face how heartbreaking it is to hear about it from the outside looking in. And that one paragraph about people with eating disorders fighting the emptiness in different ways... that really hit home.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Addiction, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
mrblackbean11's review against another edition
2.0
I was unimpressed by this book. I wouldn't recommend, and I found the book pretty unrelatable. As a tall, at times very thin girl, you would think I could, but nope. There are better books out there.
lostinbookland's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one. Some parts kept my attention long enough to want to keep on reading but at other times I just couldn't be bothered to be honest.
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