This captures so much of what trauma survivors can experience. I knew nothing but thought I knew everything.” (Gay, 99) You know when you read something and you are so struck because it sounds exactly like you? As if you could have written it yourself? This quote did it for me: “I was twenty years old and I felt like I was twelve years old and I felt like I was twenty years old and I felt like I was a hundred years old. Regardless, I can’t help but make connections between the experiences of other survivors like myself and the perspective of Gay, which was shaped by being sexually assaulted when she was 12 years old. She does not use that label here, and I’m not sure if she claims that diagnosis for herself at all. Like I said, this book could be an account of PTSD but she does not frame it that way. Here are the two major themes that emerged for me while reading this book: trauma and privilege. Yet, I am thankful that something with this level of honesty and intensity exists for us. You feel as if you’re inside her head, hearing her every thought about her trauma. It is not medical or clinical, but real, honest and raw. “Hunger” is a book that could be considered a memoir about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it is much more than that. This summer, I read “Hunger” by Roxane Gay. It got me thinking about age, body image, trauma, privilege and so much more.
