When Gay was 12 years old, her already unhealthy relationship with a boy her age took a horrific turn: the boy lured her to a cabin in the woods, where he and a group of his friends took turns raping her. Working against her is the reason why she became so heavy to begin with, why she once (if not altogether consciously) wanted to gain weight as much as she now wants to lose it. She has also, as she reveals in Hunger, waged a decades-long, mostly losing battle with her six-foot-three-inch frame, having come, at her heaviest, within spitting distance of six hundred pounds. In short, Gay has become a highly successful writer.
And, indeed, she is often insightful with regard to sexism as well as racism in popular culture (she is the daughter of prosperous Haitian immigrants). That collection’s appealing premise is that, while Gay may sometimes fall short of her own standards - i.e., while she may occasionally be a bad feminist - she is a feminist nonetheless. Over the past several years, in addition to building an enviable career as a college professor, Gay has amassed a considerable following with her short story collections, Ayiti (2011) and Difficult Women (2017) her novel, An Untamed State (2014) her opinion pieces in The New York Times and - especially - her best-selling book of essays, Bad Feminist (2014).
ROXANE GAY’S Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body is, among other things, a demonstration of the human capacity for flying high in some arenas of life while struggling mightily, often unsuccessfully, in others.
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