I went away last weekend to finish a big editing project that was due this week and which I naturally didn’t start until 72 hours before it had to be completed.
While I was editing my own stuff, I knew that I needed something to read as well as write otherwise I would have gone stark raving bonkers.
So I excitedly bought Portia De Rossi’s new memoir, Unbearable Lightness, on my Kindle for the astonishing price of $12.95. I only know how to read books two ways – fast or not at all. I inhaled this one in a couple of days.
When I mention to anyone that I read it, they seem very eager to know how it was. So I’m going to tell you.
Intense.
There really is no other way to describe it. I was going to tell you who this book isn’t for. I was going to tell you that you’d be disappointed if you were hoping to read about some of the celebrities Portia has worked with, like Elle Macpherson, Hugh Grant, Calista Flockhart, Courtney Thorne Smith, Jane Krakowski, Lucy Liu and Christian Slater. There’s no mention of most of those people and maybe one or two sentences about the others. There’s not much Ellen in this book either, not until right at the end in the epilogue.
And this frustrated me at times when I was reading it.
But then I realised something. This book is about an eating disorder. A terrible and extreme eating disorder. And what I came to understand through the book was that anorexia – or any eating disorder – is a lonely, isolating, life-sucking thing that doesn’t leave room for anything else.
I don’t know if this is a good book to read if you currently have an eating disorder or are in the early stages of recovery. I’d be interested to hear what others thought about that.
Top Comments
This is so important, so so important. As I am recovering from anorexia, I gave this book to family to read, and they understood what was happening in my head so much better. This is an invaluable tool for anyone with an eating disorder.
This book is amazing. As a past sufferer of an eating disorder, which is something that is constantly on the horizon, all I wanted while I was reading was to get those around me to read it so they understand how difficult it is to be 'normal' again.
I have to admit a good majority of the book detailing her disorder made me also think that I needed to be more careful in what I eat /severely limit my food intake and do even more excercise though, so yes, people who are not completely ready to face their disorder may not want to read the book.