Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 19
 Not a misprint December 14, 2003
Peggy Vincent (Oakland, CA)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Plenty has been written about WHAT women want; movies have even been titled as such. But this book by Caroline Knapp isn't about WHAT; it's about WHY. Knapp's 1996 book, Drinking: A Love Story, chronicled her battle with alcoholism, whereas Appetites, a much more ambitious book, examines her early battle with anorexia, a condition which was referred to only peripherally in her previous book. According to Knapp's self-awareness revelations, the denial of food is a metaphor that explores the difficulties women have even acknowledging their deepest desires - desires for sex, love, freedom, professional recognition... just life. The message behind Appetites is made more poignant by the fact that Knapp died last year of lung cancer at age 42. Her book is full of wit and wisdom - and we can hope that before death, she came to appreciate those 2 qualities within herself.
 Well-written but same old song and dance September 29, 2003
Christiana Washington (Colorado)
12 out of 50 found this review helpful
This book quickly draws you in with its enticing portrayal of anorexia but then drops you 15 pages later. The writing is lyrical, even poetic, the message is hackneyed and over-used. Men, society, teachers, traditional values, etc. are all blamed by the author for the horrifying statistics on eating disorders in our generation. Admittedly some of the things have put pressure on women to be thin, grotesquely thin. However, where and when will women be allowed to accept responsibility for their own bodies? The shape of our bodies, the color of our hair, and the size of our shoes is our business, not the business of know-it-all feminists who sit in their cozy little university offices writing books about the terrible pressures men put on us women to be skinny. Live and let live. Men have their own set of problems to deal with, and though they can be oppressive in their treatment of women, they also have shown increasing support and flexibility in their attitudes toward us. Men, in general are not to blame for anorexia nervosa, women must learn to treat themselves with compassion, patience, and respect.
 A Searing, Soulful Look at Women's Deepest Urges June 12, 2003
crazyforgems (Wellesley, MA United States)
29 out of 34 found this review helpful
Oh, Caroline Knapp will be missed.
"Appetites" is a powerful and profound exploration of her battle with anorexia in her twenties. She weaves the stories of other female bulemics and anorexics throughout her own-and also of other women with deep obsessions and cravings that lead to such behaviors as promiscuity, alcoholism, spending wildly, and shop lifting. What are they really hunger for, she asks. Love, acceptance, security? She writes with grace and force. The reader confronts these issues with her, but she eases them into the debate. And then he or she is engaged.
Knapp explores the emotional, psychological, and cultural reasons that drive American women to such behaviors. She has a softer, gentler voice than most feminists and she does not indict men for the most part. But she does blame society. It's interesting-most pop psychologists would diagnose some of the behaviors she describes as examples of an "obsessive compulsive disorder" (anorexia is a manifestation of it in many cases). Yet she doesn't use that term once in the book-in many ways, she digs even deeper for the causes than simply a diagnosis. She analyzes what triggers the disease.
I would recommend this book for most women, even if you haven't had an eating disorder. We all have appetites. I wouldn't recommend it for most men, except those who like women issue books or know someone who is anorexic.
Why women would want to read Appetites June 2, 2003
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Caroline Knapp was an intelligent presence in contemporary nonfiction. Her lyrical self-questioning voice will be missed. What I found myself missing most from Appetites was more of the straightforward personal narrative that appeared in her earlier works. Appetites combines this type of narrative with a more academic look at the causes of and institutions that reinforce anorexia. Knapp, when she is bravely telling her own (not so unique) story, is at her best and the writing is both beautiful and painful. The more general parts of the book could have (and have) been written by any numbers of writers.
Ambitious and Thought-provoking June 1, 2003
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
There are plenty of anorexia memoirs, but Knapp's "Appetites" is much more thought-provoking than most. She uses her own experiences not only to generalize about her disease, but also to explore the many types of desires that women suppress and the effect that suppression has on their ability to feel joy and live fully. The book ultimately poses more questions than it answers, but it does at least hold out some hope that women can improve their lives by finding ways to satisfy their personal needs while banding together to discover common solutions to common problems.
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