Kaveri Aparna Tankha ENG4U Mr. J. Johnston Monday, December 12, 2011
Book Review
Unbearable Lightness is a book explaining the author, Portia De Rossi, her rise in fame, and the fall in her weight. The book takes the reader on a journey, following Portia and her inner struggles to be considered “perfect,” caused by her problematic past. The reader learns how an individual suffering from an eating disorder really thinks about their eating choices, opening the reader’s mind to see that the individual thinks of their problem as a “solution” to make themselves feel better about doing such a harmful action. The book explains how eating disorders affect individuals in negative ways, both physically and mentally. The individual may also realize the wrong they are doing, but choose to believe that it is beneficial to them. Such as Portia does in this book. The book starts by introducing Portia and immediately showing the extremity of her anorexia. The reader learns how she struggled with unrealistic expectations as a child, and how it continues through adulthood. Portia also comes to terms with being a homosexual, but feared the bad publicity towards it. The book progresses with her determination to lose weight, and during this journey, she goes to many lengths to try and lose weight; dieticians, bulimia, anorexia, and constant exercise. Among trying to lose weight, she is in fear to hide her true identity to others and keep her shameful imperfections secret. Soon, Portia faces huge implications when she learns she suffers from medical problems due to her unhealthy habits. This is when the reader normally assumes that Portia would stop causing harm to herself, but instead, she disregards the dangers. She stands alone in a world where she is constantly caring what others think about her. This book was interesting, learning about the way Portia’s mind worked, focusing on her negatives and finding a solution to them. Whether it was a beneficial solution or not, it was a solution to her nonetheless. The reader is able to understand how an eating disorder sounds like a positive thing to the individual. The pictures at the end of the book allow the reader to picture the severity of her disorder, and understand how thin she was. Though they helped, being at the end of the book didn’t allow much visualization of her weight loss until the book was finished. An improvement would have been if the pictures had been placed within the book. As well, Portia De Rossi should have gone into more depth of the recovery, since the subtitle to the book is “A Story of Loss and Gain.” It would be better if Portia had explained her recovery in detail, explaining her thoughts as she realized the severity of her problems. Acknowledging her decisions to be true to herself would have made the ending more satisfying, knowing she learned from her mistakes. Reading this book allowed me to see other people suffering from eating disorders, and having the same struggles I faced. I would only recommend this book to people who are interested in the psychology of the one’s mind.
Kaveri Aparna Tankha
ReplyDeleteENG4U
Mr. J. Johnston
Monday, December 12, 2011
Book Review
Unbearable Lightness is a book explaining the author, Portia De Rossi, her rise in fame, and the fall in her weight. The book takes the reader on a journey, following Portia and her inner struggles to be considered “perfect,” caused by her problematic past. The reader learns how an individual suffering from an eating disorder really thinks about their eating choices, opening the reader’s mind to see that the individual thinks of their problem as a “solution” to make themselves feel better about doing such a harmful action. The book explains how eating disorders affect individuals in negative ways, both physically and mentally. The individual may also realize the wrong they are doing, but choose to believe that it is beneficial to them. Such as Portia does in this book.
The book starts by introducing Portia and immediately showing the extremity of her anorexia. The reader learns how she struggled with unrealistic expectations as a child, and how it continues through adulthood. Portia also comes to terms with being a homosexual, but feared the bad publicity towards it. The book progresses with her determination to lose weight, and during this journey, she goes to many lengths to try and lose weight; dieticians, bulimia, anorexia, and constant exercise. Among trying to lose weight, she is in fear to hide her true identity to others and keep her shameful imperfections secret. Soon, Portia faces huge implications when she learns she suffers from medical problems due to her unhealthy habits. This is when the reader normally assumes that Portia would stop causing harm to herself, but instead, she disregards the dangers. She stands alone in a world where she is constantly caring what others think about her.
This book was interesting, learning about the way Portia’s mind worked, focusing on her negatives and finding a solution to them. Whether it was a beneficial solution or not, it was a solution to her nonetheless. The reader is able to understand how an eating disorder sounds like a positive thing to the individual.
The pictures at the end of the book allow the reader to picture the severity of her disorder, and understand how thin she was. Though they helped, being at the end of the book didn’t allow much visualization of her weight loss until the book was finished. An improvement would have been if the pictures had been placed within the book. As well, Portia De Rossi should have gone into more depth of the recovery, since the subtitle to the book is “A Story of Loss and Gain.” It would be better if Portia had explained her recovery in detail, explaining her thoughts as she realized the severity of her problems. Acknowledging her decisions to be true to herself would have made the ending more satisfying, knowing she learned from her mistakes.
Reading this book allowed me to see other people suffering from eating disorders, and having the same struggles I faced. I would only recommend this book to people who are interested in the psychology of the one’s mind.