Gay (Difficult Women; Bad Feminist) states at least twice in this searing book that she's not as brave as people think she is. Yet, this memoir of her body—still reeling and hiding from the sexual abuse she suffered decades earlier as the result of a gang rape at age 12—displays bravery, resilience, and naked honesty from the first to last page. The essays range from describing the events that contributed to her current body weight to the sexual attack and her ensuing secrecy about it to short entries on the various indignities and difficulties involved in being a person of size in the world. We each have a body, she says, and we can all benefit from a close examination of our relationship with it.
VERDICT Buy plenty of copies of this stunning work because it will be on every end-of-year best list; essential reading after Gay's debut novel, An Untamed State, as it explains the emotions behind that brutal story. [See Prepub Alert, 1/4/17.]
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