Slim to None : A Journey Through the Wasteland of Anorexia Treatment

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Summary: One Girl's Tragedy Is Made a Gift to Many
Review: I read this book in just one sitting. Jennifer Hendricks offers in painstaking detail and honesty what it is like to be anorexic. For anyone who has any kind of history or flirtation with this disease, or any other for that matter, the author offers insight to educate people about the causes, treatments, and lingering mysteries of this horrible disease. Eloquently written, the author gives us the gift of her innermost thoughts, her private struggles, and will to live -- and die. Readers will be forever moved and forever changed after reading this book.

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Summary: how could this story be boring?
Review: I wanted to read this book and love it, but I simply couldn't get past the poor writing and VERY stiff and cliched "dialogue." Jennifer's diary entries are compelling, but none of the rest rang true for me. I just don't believe that she said things like, "Will I finally see the sun?" shortly before she died. I felt like I was reading the script for a Lifetime TV Movie about anorexia, not the story of a real woman's life.

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Summary: A pathetic tale about a manipulative girl
Review: I wanted to read this book since I've enjoyed such memoirs as Dry, Wasted, and Drinking: A love story. But page after page about a self-absorbed brat with a pathetically devoted and brainwashed father enabling her 14-year suicide was disgusting, frustrating, and depressing.

I understand that anorexia is not a choice, but I don't think this book is about an anoretic. It's more about someone with borderline personality disorder and how effectively that can wear on people's -- even professionals' -- patience. And how effectively it can manipulate the willing, even in getting them to publish sappy memoirs posthumously. I agree that the book brings up ethical questions about psychiatric care that need to be addressed. It made me wish someone would just take her to a shelter and put her to sleep so I wouldn't have to read any more of her whining, false-memory-spewing nonsense.

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Summary: Very disappointing book
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book but was extremely disappointed. I found myself saying out loud "come on that couldn't have really have happened" . I have NEVER met a therapist that had the attitudes, uses the langauge and act as unprofessional as almost all of hers did. It was so long, dry and boring plus VERY sappy. I found it very torturous to read. I couldn't wait for it to just end!

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Summary: An amazing story.
Review: It's such a tragic story of Jennie Hendricks' life through many attempts at recovery. Not only is this a very interesting book about anorexia nervosa, but it is also a spellbinding story of unconditional father-daughter love. Jennie's father amazed me throughout the entire story. It hit so close to home because I have a father who would do exactly as Jennie's dad did for her, if it ever came to that point for me. I cried at the ending, even though I all ready knew what would happen. I give it four stars though because it was kind of long for me, and near the end I found some of her diary entries written could have been left out (they had a lot of swearing and graphic references to sex). But please, go read this story! You'll find it absolutely fascinating.

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Summary: Such Strength...
Review: Jennifer Hendricks had a disease that ultimately killed her. However, the strength and courage she displayed while battling anorexia are very humbling. This book allows you to see the disease from the sufferer's perspective, rather than an "expert" perspective. When she knew she was dying, she asked her father to keep the journals she kept during her long battle and to try to do some good with them. He has kept his promise...the book is mostly taken from her journals with a few notes from her father to help clarify. It is an eye-opening experience to read about all that Jennifer suffered, both from her anorexia and from the attempts to "cure" it that ultimately failed.

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Summary: Gritty, realistic account of anorexia
Review: Ms. Hendricks gives a wrenching account of what it's like to struggle with an ED from both sides - the victim's and the family's. She also hopefully helps to expose the often-ineffective and downright inept attempts at "treatment" that some sufferers have experienced - "behavior modification" and outright punishment by some therapists that can often result in regression once the patient is discharged.

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Summary: Honest
Review: Slim to None is the first account of anorexia that I've ever read to be true. It's as though my sister (who suffered from anorexia and passed away a year ago) lead me to this book in order for me to understand better. That is what this extraordinary book does - it helps people comprehend and sympathize those involved with this illness. I hope health care professionals will read this and start thinking differently. This book gives hope that there one day will be some kind of intelligent insight into this aweful illness.

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Summary: What a waste.
Review: That's all I can think of after plowing through this book. As someone who was there once silenced her granddaughter's complaints - "There were no fat thighs in Auschwitz. I was there." I bet there wasn't any anorexia, either.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste.
Review: That's all I can think of after plowing through this book. As someone who was there once silenced her granddaughter's complaints - "There were no fat thighs in Auschwitz. I was there." I bet there wasn't any anorexia, either.