A Tale of Two Books..

Having recently read two memoir-type books recently about food and the of a person's weight to life, I thought I would combine and somewhat comparrelationship e the two the post:

Born Round: A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite by Frank Bruni
Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth

Both are books about food and our relationship to it. Having dealt with this issues my entire life and daily, I am always interested to know how others navigate it. Here are two books that both address the issues in very different but similar ways, as I will discuss below.

Born Round: A Summary

Bruni was born into an Italian Amercian family where many of the life and culture centered around food. Interestingly, he had two brothers who were close in age but did not suffer from the obsession and delight with food that he experienced at a VERY early age. Throughout Bruni's life, he fought with the association between his weight and self-identity and somewhat expectantly turned towards negative ways to handle this- crash diets, laxatives, bulimia, etc. Towards the end of the book, he does seem to draw some conclusions about this life-long battle with food and how he finds a solution for himself.

Women Food and God: A Summary

Roth wrote this book less as a story of her life but more as an instructional book as how to make food the non-center of ones life. She leads lengthy retreats teaching men and women how to train their minds to view food as a symptom of what is going on inside instead of a problem how to be defeated through the next crash diet or extensive hot yoga session. Roth is very honest with others about her own struggle with weight and even gives several "rules" that she follows to enable her to live a life free of diets but still have a life free of a prison made from one's weight.

Now for the comparison and my own thoughts about the two books. First, I appreciated both of the great honesty that the authors are able to discuss their own issues, both in the past and present. In Bruni's book, I feel like the told the tale of his battle with weight more as a chronological list of what occurred than what was going on mentally with his triggers for the emotional eating and mental health issues. He only delves into this in a few sentences at the end of the book, which could use some more exploring, at least from my perspective. The end game for Bruni is that one can decide that a life of health is more important than that of gluttony and the old timeless cliche of "eat less than you burn." In my opinion, Bruni leaves one with a question if he will be able to continue his healthy eating and working out lifestyle in the future since he has not seemed to conquer what is behind the issues in the past- in my opinion, the REAL work, but then again, I am a therapist:)

For Roth's book, I feel like she provides real, practical tools that may be somewhat more difficult to implement than Bruni's method. She, like Bruni, does promote complete honesty with oneself, which is difficulty with some of us who are more likely to be delusional about what we REALLY look like or eat without direct confrontation. Roth concentrates more on how one uses food to soothe or fill other needs. She recommends some Zen-type meditative techniques to combat some of the daily drum beat of life that can be very stressful and frustrating-often when one (like myself) turn to food. I definitely recommend this book for any woman who has ever struggled with how to handle the stresses of life without packing on the pounds. Additionally, what I think both of the books have in common is pointing out the fact that emotional eating can be another form of addiction; however, when this is ones drug of choice, everyone can see it ALL THE TIME. This book is a short read but will leave you thinking about the suggestions and "rules" after finishing the book, which I feel is the hallmark of a book worth reading.

The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebersoff

This is one of those books I picked up at a used book store that looked somewhat interesting. Its a book that tells two parallel stories, which if done well, can make the book all that much more interesting. First, it follows the story of a woman who was part of Brigham Young's harem in the 1800's. It also has a story of a guy who is attempting to free his mother of a crime he feels she did not commit-that of murdering her husband. The plot thickens here because his mother was a part of a sect of present day Mormons who condone extensive polygamy. The story if told through faux documents that record the early day of Mormonism. I really liked this book more because of the story of how women (and others) can be dominated by another race or gender, not only in the Mormon community but in society as a whole. It does a good job in telling the story of the Mormon culture and how an intelligent, thoughtful person becomes part of a culture that seems to be the outside as bizarre.