I have never read a weight loss memoir, but Andie Mitchell’s story is just what I expected from the genre: pages of contemplations as to why one overeats; long, tedious descriptions of once loved fatty foods; a stint in counseling; self-obsession, over exercising, and the realization that there is more to life than a treadmill and calorie counting. It’s all here.
While I don’t think this was the author’s intent, I came away from this reading experience with a sense of just how selfish eating disorders can be. Like any addiction, an eating disorder means that someone is completely focused on himself or herself. They may not be happy, they may not be able to control it, but the world revolves around them and the foods they eat or don’t eat. It is sad not just for the person with the disorder, but for their friends and family.
Weight loss aside, the author’s journey embodies the self-absorption, lack of substance and direction that typifies her entire generation. She partied through high school and college, went to Europe for a semester to study film, graduated with no real plan, collected a bunch of student loan debt, has a hard-working mother (who no doubt has never had the luxury of going to Europe) that is willing to pay for her plastic surgery, and after a seven year relationship she decides she has outgrown her significant other and “fallen out of love” (big eye roll for that one). They break up, she moves away, and four years later they are engaged (that part is not in the book, but on her blog).
Her life isn’t about what she can give back to people or how she can do something important that will contribute to the well being of others. No, she is troubled by the need to “find” herself, express her creativity, and grow. To read her story is to read the egocentric motivations of an entire generation.
So, I didn’t love this memoir. I didn’t hate it either. I respect the author’s weight loss journey, even if I do find her to be lacking in substance. To endure the loss of a parent at such a young age and to be left alone so often would lead some people down far darker paths than obsessively eating cake, cereal, and donuts.
