She says that after the rape, she “…felt so worthless” and “…believed didn’t deserve any better” (51), which is difficult to read, but also necessary to read. The subtitle of the book is A Memoir of (My) Body, and Gay is careful not to leave out any information or description about how her life affected her body. However personal the memoir becomes, there is never a sense of intrusion, mostly because of Gay’s tone. As she says it best herself, Hunger is not a story of winning, or of weight loss, but “…simply, a true story” (4). She strives to communicate these hardships into the proper words so that her readers can relate more to her story. She doesn’t shy away from personal trauma or hardship, but rather approaches it with confidence and bravery. Roxane Gay demonstrates boldness in the events and actions she describes in Hunger, which her tone transcribes into tangibility. Unlike most memoirs, Hunger is not merely a retelling of a period of time in the author’s life, but a journey through emotional turmoil and difficult tribulations, which provides readers with lessons to take along in life. The book itself, from HarperCollins Publishers, is easily accessible at most public libraries or local bookstores, and its 304 pages will not leave the reader wishing they’d spent their time elsewhere.
Gay’s career is exemplified best with her memoir Hunger, an account of the author’s deeply personal struggle with obesity following a harrowing sexual assault in her early childhood. Her literary achievements have landed her a firm standing among similar writers. Roxane Gay is a professor and acclaimed author of the essay collection Bad Feminist, and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti.