Purge: Rehab Diaries
Last Updated on Saturday, 13 February 2010 08:18 Written by admin Saturday, 13 February 2010 08:18
Product Description
Purge is a beautifully crafted memoir that has a Girl, Interrupted feel. In this raw and engaging account of her months in rehab, Nicole Johns documents her stay in a residential treatment facility for eating disorders. Her prose is lucid and vivid, as she seamlessly switches verb tenses and moves through time. She unearths several important themes: body image and sexuality, sexual assault and relationships, and the struggle to piece together one’s path in life. While other books about eating disorders and treatment may sugarcoat the harsh realities of living with and recovering from an eating disorder, Purge does not hold back. The author presents an honest, detailed account of her experience with treatment, avoiding the clichéd happily-ever-after ending while still offering hope to those who struggle with eating disorders, as well as anyone who has watched a loved one fight to recover from an eating disorder. Purge sends a message: though the road may be rough, ultimately there is hope.
This book was just okay. It’s definitely not a page turner by any means. Didn’t care for any of the character. Would not recommend this book. There are others relating to bulimia/eating disorders that are much, much better.
Rating: 3 / 5
I was horrified that the author would dare to write this book. While she would compare herself to Marya Hornbacher and declare her book to be much safer, she is incredibly deluded. Not only has she written awful things about the treatment center itself, but not all people at treatment centers behave in the childish manner that she did. I will humbly admit that she did accurately capture some of the features of the specific center in the book. This book is dangerous because it gives the reader ideas on how to delude staff. Ms. Johns does glamourize her eating disorder. She is a tragic figure at times in the book, but overall, more focus could be given to the real work of what happens at a treatment center. The pain and fear of eating, learning weight (which she did speak of), exercise therapy, art therapy, trauma group and nutrition therapy. Most of all, learning to reintegrate and fight the eating disorder and regain yourself, not sneak off to coffee shops or purge. While it is true that the mind of an eating disorder sufferer does regale in low vitals and write off physical complaints, people die. People die. This is not a game, this is an illness that must be treated.
Rating: 1 / 5
A fantastic memoir on the struggles of recovering from an eating disorder. Extremely vivid and intriguing. I would recommend it to anyone struggling with an eating disorder.
Rating: 4 / 5
I finished the majority of this memoir in one night. Powerful book–very easy to read. Most people are only aware of anorexia and bulimia but Purge takes the reader inside the experience of a not-so-well-known eating disorder: EDNOS. (Which stands for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.)
The book starts with an introduction by Nicole Johns in which she references Wasted by Marya Hornbacher. I wasn’t sure how to take this: on one hand, she just referenced my favorite memoir and probably the most intense book out there that deals with the subject of eating disorders. On the other hand, I didn’t want Purge to be a wannabe-Wasted. Turns out I didn’t have to worry.
The book takes place during Johns’ days of recovery in an eating disorder clinic. Not only does she take the reader through the hectic life of a person with EDNOS, she also takes them through the long hard road to recovery. The style has sort of a journal-like feel to it. (This is reflected by the first chapter which contains selected entry from Johns’ diary.) This made the book feel a bit more personal, which is one of the things that made this book very powerful. A few chapters after the first were written in second person which I found a little bit annoying, but I won’t sit here and complain about something as trivial as that.
The book really gets going when Nicole is checked into the clinic. We meet the other residents, as well as the staff, and we’re all set to get familiar with the treatment from the moment of arrival. (I knew before that rehab centers had very strict rules–I didn’t know the extent until I read this book. Some of the rules just seemed completely random; I would never have thought of half the policies and procedures Johns describes.)
I don’t want to say too much about it, but the ending was a punch in the stomach. (And I mean that in a good way.) Though the whole book is affecting, the ending does a good job of capping it off and leaving the reader reeling.
Only one thing left me feeling a bit put off: I wish that Johns would have discussed her evolution into EDNOS a bit more thoroughly. As I said before, the story focuses on her stay in treatment and the most background that we get is that her parents wanted her to be perfect and that she developed her disorder when she was fourteen. I wanted to hear a bit more about the train ride to EDNOS: was there something specific that pushed her over the edge? What childhood incidents defined her choice? When did she make the conscious decision to engage in ED behavior? Was there ever a conscious incident at all, or did she one day just find herself purging?
Perhaps a companion book detailing how she got from Point A to Point B would be ideal to compliment this one. (Perhaps one is already in the works–I would certainly buy it.) But nonetheless, this book is a keeper. If you like memoirs, check it out. If you liked Wasted and want something more, check it out. If you often find yourself in the addiction/recovery section of Barnes and Noble, check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
Rating: 4 / 5
I read the entire book as soon as it was mailed to me.
As I read on, I couldn’t help but notice many different similarities to another book I love, Wasted by Marya Hornbacher. In Purge, she writes that Wasted is a triggering memoir for people who suffer from eating disorders, yet at the same time because I have read and re-read Wasted myself many times different parts kept sticking out to me that reminded me of different parts of Wasted.
At first, even though I couldn’t put it down, I wasn’t sure if I liked how similar it was to Wasted, but after I finished it and also got to read a lot of parts that were different about it, I realized that it was OK, because I happen to love Wasted, and I decided that to have another one more like it yet with a different perspective was ok.
Rating: 4 / 5