Wasted

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Marya Hornbacher, a precociously intelligent and ambitious girl, grew up in a comfortable middle-class American home. At just five years old, she began to struggle with body image, feeling fat after ballet class. By nine, she was secretly bulimic, engaging in binge-purge cycles while watching television. A few years later, she added anorexia to her struggles, taking pride in her ability to starve herself. This memoir explores why a talented young girl would enter a world where food becomes an obsession and death is seen as honorable. Hornbacher endured both anorexia and bulimia through multiple hospitalizations, therapy, and the loss of family and friends, ultimately losing her grasp on what it meant to be "normal." Her story intensifies as she reaches college, where a severe bout with anorexia leaves her at a mere 52 pounds, turning her body into a battlefield between the will to live and the death instinct. This emotionally charged memoir illuminates the complex personal, familial, and cultural factors behind eating disorders. Hornbacher's powerful prose offers a unique insight into the harrowing experience of anorexia and bulimia, making this a landmark work in understanding these struggles and her journey toward recovery on her own terms.