The Passion of Alice

By Stephanie Grant.

Thanks to Elara for reccomending this :)

After reading the novel Wintergirls, I didn't expect to like The Passion of Alice. However, there was something about this book that made it intrigueing. Some of the reviews on Amazon* weren't impressed with the lesbian theme of the book, but I thought this gave an alternative view which is usually overlooked. I am not convinced of the accuracy regarding eating disorders, but as a novel it was good. It demonstrates how within inpatient treatment you can often learn more about yourself from other patients than you can from the therapists. The only problem is I feel that the story could have been built upon more, and I would have liked to find out what happened to Mauve (The protagonist's lover).

* Amazon.com. There are usually more reviews on the American site, so I check there before buying at .co.uk.

'...So I almost told him right then and there about the emptiness that the overeaters tried to fill with impossible amounts of food, again and again; the emptiness that the bulimics try to disgorge, as if it had been caught, a chicken bone or a fragile green fish’s gill in their quivering throats; the emptiness which we anorexics, in our superior knowledge and practice, tried to constrict, tried to compress by strangulation and deprivation...’

‘What seemed remarkable, finally, when I thought of it, was not that I loved women, but that I had loved a woman so imprecise. Maeve in all her chaos... That I loved her imperfection...’

The Monster Within

Facing an eating disorder: A Bulimic's journey of hope and healing By Cynthia Rowland McCure

I would not reccomend this book to anyone wanting to read specifically about eating disorders. However, for someone looking for a general memoir about overcoming inner conflicts through inpatient, group, and one-to-one therapy, it would probably make a good read. The points made by Cynthia and her therapist at the very end of the book were more directed towards eating disorders, but most of the book was not (not that this was a bad thing, just not what I wanted nor expected!)

Mike Moore (Cynthia's therapist): ‘Each individual has unique rituals and perceptions as part of their symptomatic patterns, and it is the individual person’s patterns being addressed, not the abstract diagnosis.’

P203 Cynthia ‘People with eating disorders always harbour intense inner pain or locked-up secrets. Often they don’t realise the depths of their pain because of the numbing effects of their eating disorder.’