Marya Hornbacher's Wasted is a brutal and unflinching memoir of the author's own struggle with two dehabilitating and yet self-afflicted conditions that affect an astounding number of women in our society: bulimia and anorexia. Wasted is not inspiring and uplifting; it is a painful and soul-baring exploration of the geneologies of one woman's eating disorders. Unlike sanitized accounts of anorexia/bulimia, which end up making eating disorders more attractive to those who are already vulnerable, Wasted presents anorexia/bulimia as a disgusting affront to humanity and self. Anorexia/bulimia is suicide in a slow form: a profound form of self-destruction and self-loathing, which is ultimately self-annihilating. From the age of nine, when it first occurred to her control her body's calorie intake by vomiting up the food she ate to her complete collapse as a college student in Washington, DC -- when her weight dropped to 52 pounds -- Hornbacher does not pull any punches. Her story is riveting and horrifying. In Bold Type this month, we have an excerpt from Wasted, a selection from the audiobook edition of Wasted, read by the author, and an interview with Hornbacher. Photo of Marya Hornbacher copyright © Mark Trockman. Send us comments