Book
Empty : a memoir / Susan Burton.
"Susan Burton is ready to come clean. Happily married with two children, working at her dream job, she has lived a secret life of compulsive eating and starving for twenty-five years. This is a relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent narrative of living with binge-eating disorder. When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parents' abrupt, hostile divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventure and an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But she hadn't escaped unscathed, and in the fallout from her parents' breakup--including her mother's intensifying alcoholism--an inherited fixation on thinness went from "peculiarity to pathology." She entered into a painful cycle of anorexia, or "iron purity" and feral binge eating that formed the subterranean layer of her sunny life. This is the story not only of loosening the grip of her compulsion but of moving past her shame and learning to tell her secret. In tart, soulful prose Susan Burton strikes a blow for the importance of women's stories, brings to life an indelible cast of characters and tells a story of exhilaration, longing, compulsion and hard-earned self-revelation"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780812992847 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xviii, 279 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Random House, [2020]
- Copyright: ©2020
Content descriptions
| Formatted Contents Note: | Prologue: 1991 -- Diet -- Puberty -- In our family -- Sunday morning -- Going west -- The mind-body problem -- The walk -- Stomachs -- Artifacts -- November 3-5, 1989 -- Winter -- Acting -- Independence -- College tour -- Secrets -- The obsession -- Late teen -- Leaving -- Kasha -- 7M -- Body image -- Indecision -- Addiction -- Stomachs 2 -- Spring -- Sophomore slump -- Ritual purification -- The accident -- The end of something -- Epilogue: Telling. |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Biographies. Autobiographies. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 616.85260092 Burto | 31681010198968 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
An award-winning This American Life documentary producer shares the story of her battles with anorexia and a binge-eating disorder, describing the painful compulsions that shaped her education, career and relationships. - Baker & Taylor
"Susan Burton is ready to come clean. Happily married with two children, working at her dream job, she has lived a secret life of compulsive eating and starving for twenty-five years. This is a relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent narrative of living with binge-eating disorder. When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parents' abrupt, hostile divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventureand an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But she hadn't escaped unscathed, and in the fallout from her parents' breakup--including her mother's intensifying alcoholism--an inherited fixation on thinness wentfrom "peculiarity to pathology." She entered into a painful cycle of anorexia, or "iron purity" and feral binge eating that formed the subterranean layer of her sunny life. This is the story not only of loosening the grip of her compulsion but of moving past her shame and learning to tell her secret. In tart, soulful prose Susan Burton strikes a blow for the importance of women's stories, brings to life an indelible cast of characters and tells a story of exhilaration, longing, compulsion and hard-earnedself-revelation"-- - Random House, Inc.
An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still.
âHer tale of compulsion and healing is candid and powerful.ââPeople
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE
For almost thirty years, Susan Burton hid her obsession with food and the secret life of compulsive eating and starving that dominated her adolescence. This is the relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent story of living with both anorexia and binge-eating disorder, moving past her shame, and learning to tell her secret.
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When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parentsâ abrupt divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventure and an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But in the fallout from her parentsâ breakup, an inherited fixation on thinness went from âpeculiarity to pathology.â
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Susan entered into a painful cycle of anorexia and binge eating that formed a subterranean layer to her sunny life. She went from success to successâshe went to Yale, scored a dream job at a magazine right out of college, and married her college boyfriend. But in college the compulsive eating got worseâsheâd binge, swear it would be the last time, and then, hours later, do it againâand after she graduated she descended into anorexia, her attempt to âquit food.â
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Binge eating is more prevalent than anorexia or bulimia, but there is less research and little storytelling to help us understand it. In tart, soulful prose Susan Burton strikes a blow for the importance of this kind of narrative and tells an exhilarating story of longing, compulsion and hard-earned self-revelation.
