Eve's Apple: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A striking debut
Review: I have re-read this book many times, as it fascinates me for both personal and aesthetic reasons. Having endured 14 years as a bulimic/anorexic (recently recovered), I have found most fictional depictions of eating disorders to be shallow efforts that feed into the fallacious cultural stereotypes (the afflicted women are trying to revert to childhood; they are getting revenge on an inadequate/inattentive parent; etc.). Rosen's novel doesn't necessarily depart from some of these stereotypes-- its eating disordered heroine, Ruth, is an upper middle class product of an overbearing, narcissistic mother-- but its sensitivity and thoroughness is remarkably admirable. Rosen has clearly done his homework regarding the etiology of the disease, and there are stretches of writing which become a bravura performance; Joseph's interaction with the charismatic Dr. Flek, for example, and the way this leads to the revelation of Joseph's own obssession, are accomplished with an almost 19th-century precision. My one disappointment was Ruth, whose childlike neediness (alternated with thinly veiled hostility) bothered me; I would have preferred a depiction of a woman emotionally emancipated from her family and attempting to be stronger for her own sake, yet still, tragically, failing. Nevertheless, I recommend this book for all readers-- and especially those with a vested interest in the psychopathology of eating disorders and those whom eating disorders affect, both directly or peripherally.

Rating:
Summary: Eve's Apple.
Review: Rosen's novel is beautifully written and deeply compelling-but the very qualities that make it worth picking up are the same qualities that should make the reader approach the contents with caution. Eve's Apple is not a story about anorexia so much as it is a story about obsession in general, and obsession's toll on the body in particular. This distinction has important consequences for the gender dynamics of sexuality, power, and love.
Rosen's novel is the only one within the genre of anorexia-related fiction that features a male narrator, a young man named Joseph. However, the male narrator of Eve's Apple is not the anorectic; Rosen's anorectic is Joseph's lover, Ruth Simon. Although Ruth now maintains a normal weight, she starved herself to the threshold of death as a teenager and struggles constantly to stave off a relapse. The novel initially seems to address the residual aftermath of anorexic logic, but as the plot thickens, the reader learns to question Joseph's intentions-and those of Rosen, as well.
Haunted by a troubled past, Joseph is driven by the desire to understand Ruth's anorexia and save her from herself. Joseph asserts that he is acting in the name of love-but close analysis of the text suggests that Joseph's "love" for Ruth is based on a selfish desire to fulfill the part of him that longs to be a hero. Ruth's body-which alternately horrifies and fascinates Joseph-is the foundation of their relationship, but Ruth herself has very little agency as a person. Ruth and Joseph likewise obtain physical closeness, but Ruth's inner world remains an enigma to Joseph and this frustrating distance sends him to the library. Seeking to understand Ruth, Joseph reads up on anorexia. Through Joseph's eyes, Rosen thus discloses many important insights regarding the nature of culture, gender, hunger, and denial.
However, the reader must keep in mind that these insights are viewed through Joseph's eyes. Ultimately, Joseph is forced to acknowledge that, while he may be Ruth's "hero," he has also contributed to her distress by being just as obsessed with her body as she is. Joseph does not want Ruth to be anorexic-but at the same time, he is attracted to the fragility of her slender frame and constantly eroticizes her thin body. Consequently, Joseph ultimately exemplifies how easy one can get close to the truth without really understanding it. Read merely as a detective story that seeks the origins of anorexia, this message may be obscured; but casting a critical eye upon Rosen's plot and symbols will prompt the reader to question Joseph's motivation and insight, as well as that of our own.

Additional information about anorexia in literature is available here: www.livejournal.com/users/lifesize

Rating:
Summary: Contrived and Strained
Review: The narrator, Joseph, is in love with Ruth, an anorexic young woman. Both are just out of college. A lot of details bothered me about this book. First, I never believed that this couple was in love. Second, Ruth's story was more like a case study than a piece of fiction. Ruth herself was flat on the page. I never got to know her, understand her motivations, or like her. The link between Joseph's need to care for her and the suicide of his older sister was forced. I just felt that this novel was "built" on a topic, rather than growing naturally out of deeply realized characters. Way too much time was spent recounting studies about eating disorders. If I were interested in that subject as a subject, I'd read the studies myself. The events and characters never resonated with me, although I was once a young woman in love and living with my boyfriend in New York City, as were Joseph and Ruth. The writing was very good and I did particularly enjoy Ruth's parents, step-mother, and Ruth's mother's lover, Ernest Flek.