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Summary: Early Praise for STICK FIGURE by Lori Gottlieb
Review: "By turns earnest and funny, hopeful and tragic, eleven-year-old Lori is a latter-day Alice: she takes us through the distorted looking glass that's held up to young girls and into the harrowing land of eating disorders. There is no other word for it: you will devour this book--and hopefully, keep right on eating." --PEGGY ORENSTEIN, AUTHOR OF SCHOOLGIRLS: YOUNG WOMEN, SELF-ESTEEM AND THE CONFIDENCE GAP "Lori Gottlieb's eleven-year-old self is a singular storyteller of unblinking candor and precocious insight. As rife with wry humor as it is lacking in self-pity, this fast-paced chronicle of late 1970s adolescent anorexia is narrated with a light touch, and yet is chilling and poignant in its straightforward simplicity." --SARA SAFFIAN, AUTHOR OF ITHAKA: A DAUGHTER'S MEMOIR OF BEING FOUND "Lori Gottlieb's approach is compassionate, and very very funny. More than just a book about anorexia, STICK FIGURE is an entertaining and thoughtful coming of age story that deals with an almost universal theme-- negotiating the landmines of early adolescence and living to tell the tale." --MARTHA MANNING, AUTHOR OF UNDERCURRENTS: A LIFE BENEATH THE SURFACE
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Summary: FOR ANYONE WHO'S EVER LOOKED IN THE MIRROR...
Review: STICK FIGURE is a book for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and wished for a different reflection. While Gottlieb grew up within the culture of Beverly Hills, the emotions and insecurities she describes are universal and truly capture the experience of growing up female in the late 20th Century.
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Summary: Gimme the skinny
Review: This is a tome filled with all the shades of grey most authors are too poised and self-edited to share with their readers. The author is just as insecure, self-absorbed, witty, jaded, innocent, naive and manipulative as we all are or can be on our best and worst days. I enjoyed reading this book for the very fact that it exposed to us a literary talent unsullied by the polished veneer of carefully wrought reader manipulation, but rather enhanced by the very flaws and foibles which it examined and exposed. This is not a guide, nor a how-to, but a much more lasting and trustworthy companion to the reader, for it works through the influence of experience, not the supposed power of preaching.
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Summary: Stick Figure...Rendered by a Child
Review: In a literary age inundated with diarists, Lori Gottlieb's book stands out like a bottle of Orbitz in a Coca-Cola bottling plant. You don't want to look, but you have the inexorable need to stare. Voyeurism at it's best, Stick Figure allows us to see into the mind of a child. It is a mind which has been harshly manipulated into a mire of skewed perspective from which it can never fully emerge. Stick Figure takes place at a time in history when society was still reeling from intense marketing of convenience foods such as Pez and spray cheese. Gottlieb must learn to deal with hypocritical pressures to simultaneously reap the rewards of a life of leisure and maintain a perfect body. Unfortunately, as an 11 year old, she does not have the mental tools to succeed. The book's only flaw is in assuming that this reality speaks only to body-conscious adolescent girls. In truth, Stick Figures also speaks volumes about the way imperfect women are viewed by society and the cruel treatment they incur. Sil, it is a worthwhile read.
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Summary: not your average memoir...
Review: Lori Gottlieb's book is not an earnest, noble, Meaningful filtration of her past ... rather, it IS her past -- in all the honest, harrowing detail of her *actual* diary. Precocious though she is, it's precisely the --for want of a better term-- *lack* of perspective that, refreshingly, keeps this book out of the realm of the "Therefore, What I Learned Is..." pile. There are many other worthy reflections on eating disorders, but this is the one that -- by her skill and by definition -- tells it like it is.
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Summary: Five low-calorie stars
Review: Whether you're thin, fat, or somewhere in between, this book is required reading, no matter what you think of ferns. Eleven-year old Lori is a precocious child caught up in a maelstrom of mixed media messages about body image. Her drastic responses, documented in her contemporaneous diaries, and the ineptitude of the adults dealing with her, will make you laugh and make you cry. Two thumbs up: I can't wait for the movie.
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Summary: I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THIS BOOK
Review: The most insightful, hilarious, accurate look at growing up in America--everyone needs to read this book! It is not about the disease of anorexia. Anorexia is the symptom of a girl's struggle to maintain her identity and value system. STICK FIGURE dissects that time when we as kids are taught and confused by the rules of conduct within our society. For example, on the one hand we are told not to lie; yet on the other, we are told not to be rude and say everything we feel, even when asked a direct question. So what is it...say what you don't quite mean? Yes, essentially, we are taught to be fake. This is just the tip of the iceberg. As a young girl, Lori was more observant and insightful, not to mention wry and witty, than most adults I know. I have never been a fan of "coming of age stories," but this one is so dead-on (maybe because it is written in the author's own words as an adolescent), yet incredibly entertaining, I could not put it down and can't stop spreading the word. Parents should make it a point to check it out--this book will shed light on things you may not be aware of (or have forgotten) as you attempt to arm your children for the real world. And in today's ever-increasingly cynical world, it was refreshing to read this girl's honest search for integrity; though bittersweet, her story will strike a cord in anyone who reads it.
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Summary: if you are curious...
Review: If you are as curious about how anorexia begins as I am, this will definately help enlighten you. Lori is only eleven years old and in the course of a year, she has become an obsessive, hospitalized anorexic. She first explains in great detail how she became the stubburn, brainwashed little girl that can only see the typical distorted view that all of us with eating disorders see and then in the same walks us through her realization that helps her recover. This is a truely sad story, though uplifting in the end and I could literally not put it down.
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Summary: Almost a mockery.
Review: I have read many books on eating disorders. While I somewhat appreciated the lighter side of this book, as eating disorders are very serious issues, it almost seemed as though she was mocking people with eating disorders. That's just how it came across to me, and I'm not sure why. The story didn't seem to have a real ending- she shows no signs of complete recovery or destined to a life in hospitals. I feel like it was written just as a "me too" type of story- everyone wants credit for their own little story to share.
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Summary: Absolutely Fabulous!
Review: I may be 31 years old, but reading Lori's diaries brought me right back to age 11, when I thought I was smarter and saner than the adults around me but secretly felt as Lori says, "like a moron" verging on insanity. I heard the author on a radio show (hilariously funny but insightful comments about her dieting 20 and 30-something friends, trying on clothes in dressing rooms, going to lunch with a group of women, ridiculous ways that women "compare" their bodies to other women's bodies) and bought the book because I know someone who's been on a dangerous diet for years, and I thought it would give me some insight into her. Instead, Lori's diaries gave me insight into ME -- back then, but also now, as an adult. What's most fascinating about these diaries is that they cover so much ground: the trenches of an eating disorder, an examination of the way women view their bodies (why is it always "not good enough" or "too fat"?) and themselves ("not good enough"), incredibly painful (and bittersweet and funny) entries about teenage angst and confusion, well-meaning but clueless parents and family members, hospital and medical attempts at dealing with what seems more to be a societal issue (or at least an emotional one), and more. Lori at 11 reminds me of the girl in the television series "Absolutely Fabulous" -- precocious, brainy, but also vulnerable and witty and someone who makes you laugh and cry and think about life from a totally unique perspective that you realize later is also your own -- you've just been too afraid to say it! This is one of the most compelling books I've read in a long time -- and the BEST of all the journals/diaries I've read (most seem so fake, and these - the language, emotions, inconsistencies, immediacy, impulsiveness, wandering tangential comments - even if they've been edited, are clearly the real deal. To anyone who might think this is a kid's book - buy it for all your ADULT WOMEN friends. I did, and we're all STILL talking about it!
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