MADreads

Cold hearted

August 4th, 2009 Dennis - Central

Not for the squeamish, Wintergirls is award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson’s portrait of 18-year-old anorexic Lia and her descent into what can only be described as madness in the wake of her former best-friend Cassie’s death.  Cassie died alone in a rundown motel room, as a complication of her own eating disorder.  After having terminated their friendship during the past year, Cassie had attempted to phone Lia 33 times (!) the night she died.  Lia never picked up the phone, and that decision on her part allows Cassie to now haunt her– in a very real sense.  At least in Lia’s troubled mind.

And it is a very troubled mind.  You know because the story is told in first person narrative.  We see Lia’s thoughts as she re-writes her world, often using strike-through text to change descriptions of everyone and everything into something that suits her skewed worldview.  For example, her long-separated parents aren’t referred to as mom or dad.  Their relationship with Lia is replaced in her thoughts by renaming them with their professional titles Doctor, and Professor.  She uses the same techniques when describing food as well, turning foods she actually craves into something disgusting in her mind.

That’s part of what was so troubling about this book– and it really is a troubling book.  How can you reach someone whose worldview is so obviously different from how you perceive the world?  Her relationship with her parents, plus her father’s second wife, is less than ideal too.  While both her natural parents have achieved some level of success in their chosen professions, their personal lives are much less than perfect.  That they’ve achieved some financial success can’t solve the emotional problems they’re encountering.  Lia’s only real anchor to reality is a fairly close bond with her young half-sister, someone with whom she can be truly loving, supportive, and non-judgmental.  It’s this relationship that gives Lia her only real chance to be a whole person, someone who isn’t self-obsessed about her weight or actively deceiving those family members who are concerned about her eating disorder.

The book does a very good job of describing the behavior of someone suffering from anorexia nervosa without being clinical.  You may not know that sufferers can be obsessive about order and counting, but you’ll read about Lia adding up calories in her mind as she surveys the food on her dinner plate, or dividing her food into smaller and smaller bites.  You may be surprised to know that there are internet web sites and chat rooms where eating disorders are encouraged and supported, but you’ll see Lia log in and read others confess to bingeing or seek support when they foresee situations when they might be tempted to eat, while encouraging readers to stay strong.  You’d probably suspect that something like an eating disorder would be hard to hide from attentive and loving parents, but you’ll read how Lia cheats when she gets weighed or pretends to eat food that she tosses in the garbage, and how her family seemingly allows such massive deception to take place.

If you’re personally unfamiliar with anorexia nervosa (and count yourself fortunate if you are unfamiliar with it) as well as the life changes and self-justification and deception that can accompany it, I’d urge you to give this book a try.  Lia really is a very sympathetic character, despite her self-destructive behavior.  And if you’re a certain age, you might also be moved by the less obvious anguish that her family endures as they struggle to cope with a disease that’s literally eating their loved one alive.  Assuming you’re not overcome, like them, by a feeling of helplessness.

Also available on compact disc and Playaway.

Entry Filed under: Young Adult