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A review by mindfullibrarian
Eat Only When You're Hungry: A Novel by Lindsay Hunter
3.0
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a finished copy of this book for review purposes - all opinions are my own.
I read fiction for many reasons, the three main ones being entertainment, education and emotion - the 3 Es for me. I have decided to rate this book based on these because I am really struggling to express my active dislike for this book contrasted with my true appreciation for the writer's abilities and the literary nature of it. Because I do really appreciate what Hunter did with this story and I completely understand why she wrote it as she did. Appreciation and LIKE do not always go hand-in-hand, though, which is what I found with this EAT ONLY WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY.
ENTERTAINMENT: I have to say that I wasn't entertained at all by the story and didn't see the humor that other readers describe. That's just me though - me as a reader. Every book has its reader, and in the entertainment category, I didn't feel it. EDUCATION - yes, I was educated. Educated in the feelings of the parent of an addict, but also in the feelings of an addict himself. And in the feelings of a man horribly uncomfortable with his every-largening body and his entire life. EMOTION.......here are my emotions after reading this book: depressed, dirty and rather sick to my stomach. This is a novel of excess, but the kind of excess I don't actually want to think about and described in an incredibly lurid way. There is nothing Hunter held back on in bodily descriptions and there were definitely parts that made me squirm and want to stop reading.
Was this a book I will recommend to friends as one I loved? No. Is this a book I will be thinking about (happily or not) for a long time to come and will refer to in book discussions? Yes. Perhaps that is the perfect summation of literary fiction as a genre.......
I read fiction for many reasons, the three main ones being entertainment, education and emotion - the 3 Es for me. I have decided to rate this book based on these because I am really struggling to express my active dislike for this book contrasted with my true appreciation for the writer's abilities and the literary nature of it. Because I do really appreciate what Hunter did with this story and I completely understand why she wrote it as she did. Appreciation and LIKE do not always go hand-in-hand, though, which is what I found with this EAT ONLY WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY.
ENTERTAINMENT: I have to say that I wasn't entertained at all by the story and didn't see the humor that other readers describe. That's just me though - me as a reader. Every book has its reader, and in the entertainment category, I didn't feel it. EDUCATION - yes, I was educated. Educated in the feelings of the parent of an addict, but also in the feelings of an addict himself. And in the feelings of a man horribly uncomfortable with his every-largening body and his entire life. EMOTION.......here are my emotions after reading this book: depressed, dirty and rather sick to my stomach. This is a novel of excess, but the kind of excess I don't actually want to think about and described in an incredibly lurid way. There is nothing Hunter held back on in bodily descriptions and there were definitely parts that made me squirm and want to stop reading.
Was this a book I will recommend to friends as one I loved? No. Is this a book I will be thinking about (happily or not) for a long time to come and will refer to in book discussions? Yes. Perhaps that is the perfect summation of literary fiction as a genre.......