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I just got back from Blogher 09 and I'm exhausted. It's a good kind of exhaustion, the one that comes from too much fun and too much time in a car (roadtrip!). BlogHer 09 wasn't all fun and frivolity though. One of the best sessions I attended dealt with some very serious issues. It was the Blogs and Body Image Room of Your Own session. It is going to stick with me for a long time. On the (really long) drive home I decided it was finally time to read Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls.
I've been wanting to read Wintergirls for a long time. I first mentioned it in a young adult literature and body image post back in March. This is what I said:
Not all novels about body image are easy to read. Laurie Halse Anderson's most recent book Wintergirls about bulimia and anorexia is, by all accounts, a rough read. It's also by many accounts an "OMG! I couldn't put it down! It's awesome!" read. Laurie Halse Anderson has a special talent for tackling rough subjects with out sugar-coating and making them and still "I can't put this down" kind of book.
It's all true. Wintergirls was not an easy read but it was one that I couldn't put down, even though I sometimes suffer from motion-sickness while reading in the car. I read it start to finish from Cleveland to Buffalo, suffering mostly from the worry that my Sony Reader was going to run out of juice before I finished it. (It didn't.) Simply Megan understands my need to read it, even through my exhaustion.
I was exhausted after our championship meet, but I couldn't sleep until I finished the last fifteen pages. Somehow, without me realizing it, I was sucked into this book.
Part of the reason that you get pulled into this book is because of the characters. They make your heart hurt. Lia tugged at my heart as I watched her dive deeper and deeper into anorexia. Cassie, though for most of the book not the most likable of characters, tugged at my heart because she was beyond help. There were both deeply broken girls that you just want to pull to your chest, hold tight and shower with love. There were times when you want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them to see if you can make them see what they are doing. In a book blurb or on the back cover neither will come off as the most sympathetic character, sometimes not even the most believable, but they really are. Jessica at Unsearchable Riches addresses this in her post about Wintergirls.
I should address the characterization first because most people will read the summary and think, “She doesn’t sound very likeable.” And to that end, they would be right. Lia is a liar. She is deceptive, self-absorbed, and very very broken. Anyone who has struggled with his/her body image will find Lia relatable. Anderson consulted with psychologists and Lia is based on many fan letters she has received from girls like the character. Lia is believable. I recognized myself more often than I care to admit.
Tasha at And Another Book Read said that "the honesty, brutality, and love that was felt throughout the story really came together to create one heck of a novel." She called the writing lyrical. I called it haunting. Suey at It's All About Books has another word for it - scary.
I am a little reluctant to let my own kids read this one, but I'm not sure I can put into words why. Perhaps because this particular problem is more within the realm of possiblity for them then some of the other teenage problems that we often read about, so I don't want to give them any ideas... or something. I don't know. I just know that it's scary.
It is scary. And honest. And haunting. It's all the reasons why discussions like the one that I was lucky enough to take part in at Blogher 09 are so important. It's why books like this one, and Feed Me and Perfect Girls, Starving Daughter need to be read. It's why BlogHer encouraged women to write a "Letter to my body" in 2008. Because body image and negative messages touch us all. Even if our own body image is positive we all know someone who thinks, says or writes negative messages about their bodies. It may be
