Customer Reviews:
 Every girl should read this April 19, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is amazing. I go to a large State College and see this sort of thing everyday. Girls spending money the don't have to buy an identity; girls giving themselves up to men just to feel wanted, girls starving themselves simply because they are so lost. This book says everything; very honestly. I think any female can relate to it. I couldn't put it down. I stayed up and read the whole thing in two days. I particularly rec this book if you are about college age from my generation.
 Excellent sociological commentary and compelling story December 15, 2004
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Knapp does an excellent job of weaving in her personal struggles with research and social commentary. She is not willing to simply say, "I wanted control, so I was anorexic." She realizes that there are many pieces to this puzzle, a puzzle that must be put together if our young women are to flourish.
She excels at digging into the myths of our society and the conditions that create an atmosphere ripe for addictions of appetite.
One thing this book lacks is solutions, but at least she was willing to ask the questions.
Appeties:Why Women Want October 18, 2004
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The book Appetites: Why Women Want, written by the late author Caroline Knapp, is an antidote to our culture's obsession with beauty and women's body-image. It is hard to believe that such a book, published in 2003 has only recently been written. The book contains simple but necessary ideas concerning women and the obsessions we are prone to face: material possessions, relationships, and eating disorders. Though the book definitely has an intended audience of women, it cannot be categorized as a feministic book. There is no lecture. Knapp speaks to her audience simply and slowly, allowing her ideas to get across thoroughly to the reader.
The memoir recalls of Knapp's childhood, growing up a perfectionist who got straight A's and her difficult relationship with her parents which all lead to her eventual eating disorder, anorexia, that she formed in college. Knapp watched her mother be an ideal late-fifties housewife-"she did all the grocery shopping, all the laundry, all the cleaning and cooking", yet "at the same time, she was one of the most intelligent and well-informed women I've ever known". Then, later on in life, she talks of her father having an affair, her own affair with a teacher, and then watching her boyfriend move across the country. It is a common and realistic story in people's lives, a story any reader can relate to in one form or the other. The fact that this is all true allows the reader, the woman, to find their story. Caroline Knapp says things without really explaining them, referring to examples that allow the reader to apply the book to their life more easily-"Obsessions-even mild ones, even the run-of-the-mill, mundane daily obsessions that can pepper a woman's thoughts (Do these jeans make my butt look too big? Should I go to the gym?)-have such extraordinary deflective power." Knapp explores familiar people in her life--"the woman who insisted that weight is `not really an issue', for instance, also noted that she only allows herself to eat dessert, or second helpings at dinner, if she's gone to the gym that day." These are women that any reader can share with, and what Knapp is pointing out is the complete bombardment with self-image, with weight, with pleasure, with denying-"What liberates a person enough to indulge appetite, to take pleasure in the world, to enjoy being alive? Within that question lies the true holy grail, the heart of a woman's hunger."
The book is important and special because the idea Knapp talks of pertains to every woman's life. As a female, we all have friends or mothers or siblings who think they are too fat or too skinny or are too promiscuous or constantly compare themselves to others. Our culture and media is saturated with the ideal body type, a body type which hardly any women can relate to. Knapp is getting to the heart of this situation-why we must do so or be so-always wanting to be someone else or achieve something "better". In a world filled with fashion magazines and diet books, Appetites: What Women Want is brilliant and revolutionary.
Caroline Knapp is a must read February 28, 2004
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Caroline Knapp clearly has been through a lot. Her writing is honest andfor the most part non-judgemental. This was the first books I read by Knapp and I simply started reading it when I picked it up by chance at a local bookstore. I ended up reading all of her books. But appetites is my favorite because it deals with so many issues under the "food" topic. I recommend it to everyone, for women to re-think and to menso that they can better understand and relate. Overall it was a great read. I highly recommend it.
This is a book to buy for your sisters and daughters January 8, 2004
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
By any scale, I've been a fortunate and successful woman. I deeply enjoy my work, have the opportunity to think deeply, have good health, loving family and children.
This book was originally a recommendation from a friend, one of those 'think you might like it' things, that sat on the table. Why would I be interested?
Opening it, reading it and being stuck almost motionless by recognition of deep truths has changed that attitude. I'm ordering 5 copies. Young, middle-aged and older women need to read this book and think about it. Both to appreciate the stresses and strains that our mothers experienced, and to realize the residual effect on our lives. Share this book, pass it along to others, it is important.
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