Wasted

A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

By: Marya Hornbacher

Narrated by: Marya Hornbacher

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Precociously intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and ambitious, Marya Hornbacher grew up in a comfortable middle-class American home. At the age of 5, she returned home from ballet class one day, put on an enormous sweater, curled up on her bed, and cried because she thought she was fat. By age 9, she was secretly bulimic, throwing up at home after school, while watching Brady Bunch reruns on television and munching Fritos. She added anorexia to her repertoire a few years later and took great pride in her ability to starve.

Marya's story gathers intensity with each passing year. By the time she is in college and working for a wire news service in Washington D.C., she is in the grip of a bout of anorexia so horrifying that it will forever put to rest the romance of wasting away. Down to 52 pounds and counting, Marya becomes a battlefield: her powerful death instinct at war with the will to live.

Why would a talented young girl go through the looking glass and slip into a netherworld where up is down, food is greed, and death is honor? Why enter into a love affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Marya Hornbacher sustained both anorexia and bulimia through five lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss of family, friends, jobs, and ultimately, any sense of what it means to be "normal."

In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she recreates the experience and illuminates the tangle of personal, family, and cultural causes underlying eating disorders. Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to the darker side of reality, and her decision to find her way back again - on her own terms.

©1998 Marya Hornbacher (P)1998 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Great listen

Where does Wasted rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The book ranks in the top 25% of audiobooks I have listened to.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I cried for the pain Marya was going through - we all struggle with body image.

Any additional comments?

I loved the honesty of the audiobook - there is no final happy ending but the truth that Marya will be working on her food and body image for the rest of her life. I definately could relate to her experience.

eye opening

I have worked with eating disorders for 6 years. This was very helpful as people with eating disorders do not let you in.

Worth the read!

An excellent memoir. I highly recommend this book! It's very well written, and very well read by the narrator.

A sugar coating free book! And I love it!

If you could sum up Wasted in three words, what would they be?

Honest, funny and horrifyingly beautiful.

What did you like best about this story?

I love how honest this memoir is. There is no sugar coating here or even a Splenda coating and that's how it should be for an eating disorder memoir. You can tell where she was and is at and you can see an actual person, not a person writing a book about their life. I think if you are looking for a beautiful and truthful memoir this is it!

What does Marya Hornbacher bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Having her read it allows the reader to not get a translated version of what happened. You get the person who lived and wrote the story as your guide through her life. Take advantage!

Sad and worth the read

Any woman who has ever struggled with weight issues, from either spectrum of extreme to minor can empathize with the writer and her story

Amazing story

This was so well read, the emotion in her voice, and the realist ending.. loved it.

Unfiltered, Bold, Eye Opening

**The audio seemed poor/lower quality. This isn’t the authors fault I would imagine, but it did make it difficult to hear and understand at times.

The guts it must’ve taken to publish this book… I applaud Marya for her bravery and boldness. This feels very raw, brutally honest, and there’s a sense of confidence in the writing that can’t be ignored. As someone who is coming to terms with their own ED behaviors, I found this book to be genuinely eye opening.
For those who are picky about narration: I thought it was perfectly fine, and she gave certain moments in the book the appropriate tone to really convey the emotion of the situation. So no complaints!

Gut Wrenching

I have not read the unabridged version, but do not feel I need to. The adbridgement seems superb, and hearing the author read it gives the story sometimes unbearable emotional impact. This is not an easy listen. The author's unflinching honesty is, at times, very painful. The story is not a happy one, and you will find absolutely NO sugar-coating. What you will find is an amazingly talented writer bringing to bear her considerable skill to the description of her self-destructive eating disorder. To hear this from her point of view has taught me much that a textbook never could.

Stunning book

This is an incredible book, it's been in my top 3 since '99. Hornbacher doesn't pull any punches. It's a gripping story, and I love the way she writes. I really enjoyed hearing her read it for the first time. I just wish it wasn't abridged. I feel like a lot was left out. Still excellent, though.

story, narrative, her voice. it all grips you.

i was very surprised. I never expected a book I only bought to inform myself, to became one of my favorite. from her story to the tone of her voice. I loved it.