My BMI has always been marginally alarming I have been obese all my life. She was born a couple of hours ago.” My mother always relates this conversation with pride because she pushed out that HUGE baby. Her jaw dropped she asked my grandmother, “Whose child is this? So huge! Already looks like it’s 10-months-old!” The remark terrorised my grandmother. I was a few hours old when my aunt saw a nurse carrying me to another room. But Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body has exhumed some painful memories and writing about those here will be a comforting exercise in catharsis. Is it fair to air stories about my battle when Gay’s memoir is utterly raw and intimate? I don’t know.
