book review: Either/Or by Elif Batuman | BookBrowse.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review. Probably other things too, but that’s the big one.

Massive trigger warning for eating disorders (in many different forms, though calorie counting is a big one). It’s not for everyone, but if you gravitate toward the slightly fucked up and absurd, you’ll probably love this too. Still, while I ultimately felt that Broder could have used a defter hand in editing to get it up to the high standard she set for herself in The Pisces, I honestly loved spending time with this book. Where this book falters is in its introduction of Miriam and her family–the pace slows, the focus shifts, Rachel’s behavior becomes slightly less intelligible. Melissa Broder really excels at sharp and specific characterization where a lot of books in the ‘disaster woman’ genre tend to opt for a more ‘generic millennial every-woman’ approach (which I’ve certainly seen done well, but which I think I may be a bit burnt out on). Rachel was so convincing and well-crafted that I felt like I knew her intimately after only a few pages. (Also, if you’re familiar with LA and/or into bougie LA culture… her books are such a treat.) Rachel is a character whose head I bizarrely enjoyed inhabiting, in spite of or perhaps because of the sheer level of toxicity. Mid-detox, she meets Miriam, an Orthodox woman who works at Rachel’s local frozen yogurt place, who Rachel becomes fixated on, leading to a breakdown of her carefully constructed food rituals.īroder’s books are messy, piercing, gritty, and deeply, deeply funny–it’s a recipe that works perfectly to my tastes. Her therapist recommends a detox from her emotionally abusive mother, who Rachel usually calls every day. Milk Fed, Broder’s sophomore novel following her sensational debut The Pisces, follows Rachel, a lapsed Jewish woman who works at a talent agency in LA and spends every waking hour of her days counting calories and fixating on her diet. Ultimately it did lose a bit of steam and I can’t help but to mourn for the exceptional book that it could have been, but nevertheless, I still enjoyed this so much and recommend it wholehearted to the right reader. After I read the first 30%, I was convinced that this was going to be my favorite book of the year. Milk Fed just goes to show that you can love a book and still be incredibly disappointed in it.

Milk fed melissa broder review