“Writing this book is a confession. These are the ugliest, weakest, barest parts of me. This is my truth. This is a memoir of (my) body because, more often than not, stories of bodies like mine are ignored or dismissed or derided.”
The contents in Hunger are based on Gay’s personal experience with her body. She offers all details without exaggerating of aggrandizing the content. Gay is cognizant that her story is not as appealing as success cases of weight loss since she is not yet in place where she can celebrate her weight loss. Gay is aware of the stigma which big-bodied people face; hence, she strives to be honest in her writing to underscore the challenge of dealing with obesity.
“What the doctors offered was so tempting, so seductive: this notion that we could fall asleep for a few hours, and within a year of waking up, most of our problems would be solved, at least according to the medical establishment. That is of course, if we continued to delude ourselves that our bodies were our biggest problem.”
Here, Gay is attending a session which enlightens her about “gastric bypass surgery” which could aid her to lose weight. Evidently she is bothered by her weight so is seeking a medical remedy which would expedite her weight loss process. She thinks that her problematic body can be tamed through the surgical procedure.
