Life Size (by
Jenefer Shute) is a
book about
anorexia told from the
point of view of a
anorexic woman named Josie. It was published in
1992 and received good reviews in The New York Times and Washington Post as well as praise from
Naomi Wolf for it's
accurate portrayal of
the anorexic mind.
Life Size is structured like a
mystery novel. It begins at
rock bottom, Josie is at her lowest
weight (sixty-seven pounds) and treated with
force feeding (
hyperalimentation) if she
can't eat the food the nurse brings her in the hospital. The mystery for the reader is how she got to be so
emaciated-- what was the source of her
self destructive self righteousness and
stubbornness? Why is she so filled with
malice for life? Why is she
obsessed with her weight?
Unlike other "
disorder of the month" books that fail to really give the reader any insight in to the causes of the disorders they describe.
Life Size shows the reader, through Josie's memories the source of her anorexia (or I should say the source
s, since, true to life, Shute portrays the disorder as multi-faceted and complex)