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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Powerful story. Reasonably well-written. Some lines well worth remembering, including:
“There's a fine line between being private and being ashamed.”
“Shame weighs a lot more than flesh and bone.”
"And I somehow always felt less lonely when I was completely alone.”
“You don't have to be emaciated or vomiting to be suffering. All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering.”
"True nobility isn't about being better than anyone else; it's about being better than you used to be."
“There's a fine line between being private and being ashamed.”
“Shame weighs a lot more than flesh and bone.”
"And I somehow always felt less lonely when I was completely alone.”
“You don't have to be emaciated or vomiting to be suffering. All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering.”
"True nobility isn't about being better than anyone else; it's about being better than you used to be."
This was another book I wasn't sure if I would enjoy. Again, I was wrong. Portia's perspective on anorexia/bulimia was very eye opening and helpful. I do not struggle with either issue, however I know someone who is struggling with anorexia and this gave me a completely different view of this issue.
It was so helpful to read things from someones viewpoint who has gone through this and come out on the other side. It also helps me to understand how this person is thinking and how they view their body and food.
Definitely a book I would recommend.
There is some language in the book.
It was so helpful to read things from someones viewpoint who has gone through this and come out on the other side. It also helps me to understand how this person is thinking and how they view their body and food.
Definitely a book I would recommend.
There is some language in the book.
True nobility isn't about being better than anyone else, it's about being better than you used to be - Wayne Dyer
That's a whole lotta being inside somebody else's sick head. I probably should have read the first 10%, the middle 10% and then just skipped right to the epilogue.
It was a fantastic book. Even though I have never gotten to the point that she did, I could relate to her. The ending was perfect.
I didn’t read this because I’m particularly interested in Portia de Rossi or celebrity, but because I’m interested in eating disorders. It turned out that I was fascinated to learn more about Portia and her career, which began at age 12 as a model, which is where the unhealthy bingeing and purging began. It’s when everything from her eyes to her thighs were discussed by her stylists, journalists, directors—everyone dissected her right in front of her, and she took those comments to heart. She couldn’t think of one single body part she liked—her eyes were too close together, her hands were too manly, her thighs were too big, her stomach too round. Also, she was gay, and, for a long time, she had a hard time admitting it because she was worried about ruining her career as an actress in America and how her family would react (when Ellen came out in 1997, Portia’s grandmother expressed disgust and stopped watching her).
This is not an enjoyable read. It’s fascinating, but it’s tough to read page after page of such insane behavior. She would only eat 300 calories a day and yet run at top speed for an hour. I don’t even know how a human can do that day after day. Marathon runners carbo load. They at least eat vegetables occasionally. All Portia would eat was microscopic portions of tuna and egg whites. Reading endlessly about her obsession with calories gets tedious, but I kept going because I wanted to find out how she got to such a happy ending of being physically healthy and in love with such an amazing woman, Ellen.
For a long time, Portia thought, “Not just anyone could have anorexia. It was a disorder of the highly accomplished, cultured, beautiful. It belonged to models, singers, and Princess Diana. I had always secretly been in awe of anorexics with their super-human restraint.”
This book is about her disease and only briefly touches on her getting well. She stumbled for a long time before that happened. She went from 82 pounds to 168—all while being scrutinized by paparazzi!
She writes, “Being sick allows you to check out of life. Getting well again means you have to check back in.” Later she adds that to get well, you have to find “something other than your body image to be passionate about.”
She did learn a healthy balance. People become anorexic and bulimic for many reasons. People also overeat for many reasons—loneliness, for example, or because they scarf down food on the run instead of actually enjoying it. I definitely agree with her that dieting is not the way to go. You should accept your natural body weight by eating healthily and getting exercise, whether it’s walking your dog or going to a yoga class or whatever. While pumping iron at the gym doesn’t work for her, it does work for some people, but she’s also right about the diet and fitness industry preying on our insecurities, and how we need to do our best to ignore unhealthy or unattainable “ideals” and find the beauty of ourselves and how we fit into this world.
This is not an enjoyable read. It’s fascinating, but it’s tough to read page after page of such insane behavior. She would only eat 300 calories a day and yet run at top speed for an hour. I don’t even know how a human can do that day after day. Marathon runners carbo load. They at least eat vegetables occasionally. All Portia would eat was microscopic portions of tuna and egg whites. Reading endlessly about her obsession with calories gets tedious, but I kept going because I wanted to find out how she got to such a happy ending of being physically healthy and in love with such an amazing woman, Ellen.
For a long time, Portia thought, “Not just anyone could have anorexia. It was a disorder of the highly accomplished, cultured, beautiful. It belonged to models, singers, and Princess Diana. I had always secretly been in awe of anorexics with their super-human restraint.”
This book is about her disease and only briefly touches on her getting well. She stumbled for a long time before that happened. She went from 82 pounds to 168—all while being scrutinized by paparazzi!
She writes, “Being sick allows you to check out of life. Getting well again means you have to check back in.” Later she adds that to get well, you have to find “something other than your body image to be passionate about.”
She did learn a healthy balance. People become anorexic and bulimic for many reasons. People also overeat for many reasons—loneliness, for example, or because they scarf down food on the run instead of actually enjoying it. I definitely agree with her that dieting is not the way to go. You should accept your natural body weight by eating healthily and getting exercise, whether it’s walking your dog or going to a yoga class or whatever. While pumping iron at the gym doesn’t work for her, it does work for some people, but she’s also right about the diet and fitness industry preying on our insecurities, and how we need to do our best to ignore unhealthy or unattainable “ideals” and find the beauty of ourselves and how we fit into this world.
I am sure that for the author, it was a wonderful exercise to write this book. I suppose it IS a shocking story but it got tedious for me, reading how she struggled in Hollywood to fit in and chapter after chapter of how she starved herself. It was her desperation to be famous, really, and I guess I have little sympathy for the rich and famous when it comes to how they choose to chase that fame--and why are their struggles any more "shocking" than the every day struggles of us "regular" people? I expected more about how she healed and learned to be happy with herself. Instead I got bored and ended up skimming the last third of the book. I honestly have to wonder if the rave reviews would be as rave if she weren't Mrs. Ellen DeGeneres. I am sure I'll be watching my "Ally McBeal" DVDs through different eyes now, however.
I was genuinely surprised at how well written Portia de Rossi's anguishing story of her battle with anorexia was. The day-to-day struggle, her thought processes, the desperation and exhaustion all come through clearly and sharply. She doesn't spend a lot of time talking about her life as a celebrity, choosing instead to write about how her rise to celebrity fueled the disordered thinking and feelings of loss of control and over-exposure, which in turn led to developing a very frightening eating disorder that could easily have robbed her of her health and even her life.
It's not often I come across a memoir that I'm reluctant to put down and am eager to get back to but this is one of them. It's a really good, engrossing read and I highly recommend it.
It's not often I come across a memoir that I'm reluctant to put down and am eager to get back to but this is one of them. It's a really good, engrossing read and I highly recommend it.
I think Portia DeRossi is my new hero. Her story of her struggles with anorexia and bulimia is beautifully written (did she have a ghost writer?) and painfully, frighteningly honest. She shared things I'm not sure I would share with my closest friends, but of course that's what makes her story so incredible. I couldn't put the book down, feeling like with each page I was inching closer to a horrible crash - which of course was the truth, just not in such an obvious way. Very, very well done.
I really appreciated de Rossi's descriptive way of letting us know what her ED was like for her. As someone has had some people very close to me struggle with ED I felt like I got more insight, found myself nodding along in agreement, and I hope will ultimately make me a more understanding friend.
The only place I found myself cringing was in the Epilogue and really it wasn't because she was saying anything crazy or weird or preachy --the flow was just different for me.
The only place I found myself cringing was in the Epilogue and really it wasn't because she was saying anything crazy or weird or preachy --the flow was just different for me.