Milk Fed, Melissa Broder
It starts when Rachel's therapist challenges her to set boundaries with her mother – no communication for 90 days – her mother who shaped her own view of her body and fatness; nudged her over the years into a life defined by calorie restriction
It essentially skirts around this orthorexia without calling it an eating disorder, but fittingly the story embraces queerness and a delight in the female body. Rachel's initial self-loathing evolves into rejoicing in eating and food: there is a lovely dinner scene with lush descriptions of Jewish home cooking.
- Lots of themes of family, faith and romance/lust
- ymmv, but I found the sexual fantasies quite heavy-handed
- bittersweet ending. No tragic lesbians here, but it's not a happy ever after either.