Friday, August 21, 2009
Uncategorized Book review: Born Round by Frank Bruni
Posted by Besha Rodell @BeshaRodell on Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 5:20 PM
Anyone who has spent significant time struggling with weight will tell you how pervasive and frustrating that internal voice can be. The voice that tells you you’re ugly. The voice that chastises you for enjoying food. The voice that congratulates you for abstaining, that picks apart every culinary decision, that fixates on clothing sizes, that wears you down until you hate yourself for being so predictably sado-masochistic.
It’s this voice we become privy to in Frank Bruni’s new memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full Time Eater. Bruni, who has spent the last four years as restaurant critic for the New York Times, has written a book that chronicles in detail his lifelong tussle with his weight. Bruni recounts every self-doubting thought, every fluctuation in pants size, and the tortured conflict of emotions surrounding every mouthful of food.
In many ways, it’s a powerful story, highly relatable and familiar to many of us. But the book belabors in 368 pages what we know in the first few chapters – this man has a fraught relationship with food and self-image. The meticulous detailing of that relationship seems self-indulgent at best, at worst an unhealthy excuse to feed his neuroses.
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
Drawing dance at the Decatur Arts Festival
CORE, Beacon highlight dance offerings
-
Paul Luna isn't finished with PARKatlanta 1
Chef files another lawsuit claiming private parking-enforcement deal violates city's charter
-
That poor baby beluga died 2
Experts say beluga deaths are unavoidable, but deaths in captivity are
- More »
More by Author
-
Drew van Leuvan to leave One Midtown Kitchen, open Seven Lamps in the Shops Around Lenox
His new Buckhead restaurant will open this summer.
-
ACC Tournament: NC State whoops Boston College, Georgia Tech craps out to Miami
Game 2, 3, and 4 of the 2012 ACC Tournament at Philips Arena
- More »
Comments (0)