Hunger Point

by Jillian Medoff

Book Overview

" An] unusually honest, painfully funny novel about a tight-knit family's struggle." --Entertainment Weekly

"My parents may love me, but I also know they view me as a houseguest who is turning a weekend stay into an all-expense-paid, lifelong residency, and who (to their horror) constantly forgets to flush the toilet and shut off the lights."

Twenty-six-year-old Frannie Hunter has just...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060989238
• ISBN13: 9780060989231
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Five stars isn't enough

I read alot (close to fifty books so far this year) and in all that time I have only read a handful of books that affected me as much as this one. I was greatly moved by this story. I think Ms. Medoff really dug down deep and drew from her well of experience for this novel. I don't think she could have written a book this good without having some experience and a deep knowledge about Anorexia and its effects on a family. I was moved to tears many times by this painfully honest novel, but just as many times I was laughing out loud at the author's acerbic wit. Frannie Hunter is 26 years old and she is just part of majorly dysfunctional family. She can't seem to hold onto a job or an apartment and is forced to move back home and live with her parents. Frannie's mother, Marsha is obsessed with food, her body image and that of her children's not to mention the fact that she is also addicted to tranquilizers. Frannie's father, David is in the midst of a career crisis, he watches all the cooking shoes on T.V. and instead of talking with his family to find out what is really going on, he perfers to do the daily word jumbles and not say much to anyone. Shelly, Frannie's younger sister is a gifted graduate of Cornell, she wants to attend Harvard Law mainly to make her mother happy and she is the Anorexic one. Perhaps she is forced into that as well to please her mother or she just adopts this pattern of behavior because that is all she knows. Although this is a novel about Anorexia and other obsessive behaviors, it is also about women's relationships to men, sex and other women. It is the relationship between Frannie and Shelly that was the most heartwrenching for me. It is one that I am still thinking about even though I have finished the book and one that I am not likely to forget. Readers who loved this book as much as I did might also want to try a book about a man's struggle with drug addiction and that is: A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey. Both of these books are unforgettable!!

Jillian Medoff does it again!

I was duly impressed with Jillian Medoff's Good Girls Gone Bad, and so I didn't hesitate to pick up this book. Hunger Point is a poignant novel about a young woman's struggles with the unraveling of her family. Frannie Hunter, unable to sustain a job and an apartment of her own, moves back with her parents. As she tries to get her life in order, she witnesses her sister's battle with Anorexia, her mother's two-timing behavior, and her father's career woes. As a former anorexic, I can relate to the hardships the protagonist and the other characters go through. The subject matters that Medoff addresses in Hunger Point -- eating disorders, depression, grief, etc. -- are mixed with poignancy and humor. Medoff is as witty as she is insightful. I laughed out loud in many occasions. Her work is similar to Anna Maxtet's; however, Jillian Medoff has a particular brand of comic timing and keen storytelling all her own. She is one of the best new authors out there and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

I Highly Recommend This Novel

From beginning to end, I was so interested in these characters and their stories. They became very real to me. For me this book is sort of a snapshot in how it portrays what some people do (so often women in particular) in their search to find love, feel loved, and gain control in their lives. Each character was searching in their own way and I related to them all. The first time I read it I was overcome with sadness, the second time I was struck by the humor and warmth. I look forward to this author's next novel.

Honest, emotional, and catching.

As an anorexic female, I found this book to be very emotional, for two reasons. One, I can place myself in the main character's struggle for perfection and thinness but at the same time I also saw the family's struggle with the eating disorder. The book, I feel, takes an honest look at all the systems involved with a person who is struggling for meaning. I could not put this book down. I read it in one day and I would reccommend this book to those who are trying to understand eating disorders. This novel really struck some feeling in my heart.

The characters' reactions to situations are consistent.

This book is an excellent studu in character development. The author presents very realistic characters with very realistic reactions to those situations. Frannie (the main character)explores the non-relationships with the members of her family. Frannie has to deal with many problems, from the trouble she has finding a career to dealing with her parents' break-up and her bulimic younger sister's suicide. The author skillfully lets the reader believe that the actions that the characters' partake within the novel are believable and genuine. There are not any instances, in which, the action of the story is seems out of place or stuck in for shock value. The author weaves a delicate tapestry that has a connection with other parts of the novel presented beforehand. This novel is a wonderful piece of writing the characters found within the novel are not perfect, they are very human indeed. The reader may find himself sympathizing and hating the character in the span of a few pages which can be attributed to the excellent character development. I found my moods corresponding to the chapter I was reading in the novel. This, I feel, is effective writing. This is a first rate novel, which may not be the most palatable of reading for most men, but being a man myself I can still find this novel relevant with men. I feel that if males read this novel it would help them understand the female psyche, bulimia, and just what do some women want. Females would probably benefit the most, because the novel hits close to home with most of the women I knew. I have recommended this book to many of my female friends. To those interested mainly in literature, this is one tremendous story of breaking out of one's shell.