Appetites: Why Women Want, by Caroline Knapp
“(Knapp) illuminates the ways in which cultural taboos about women who desire create vulnerability to disorders of appetite including food and alcohol addictions, compulsive shopping and promiscuous sex. In this expansive view, ‘one woman’s tub of cottage cheese is another woman’s maxed-out Master Card.’”
--Barbara Mackoff
Some things to know about Caroline Knapp:
She was the daughter of the noted psychiatrist Peter H. Knapp; she was a successful reporter for the Boston Phoenix; and she wrote a bestselling book about being a high functioning alcoholic called, Drinking: A Love Story. She died in 2002 of lung cancer before this book was published.
These influences make Appetites truly compelling. Knapp’s questions; why women want, and how do women identify and demand their wants, have psychological grounding. She uses her reporting skills on herself and the broader culture to try and answer some of these questions.
The eating disorder theme in this book is an obvious draw, but Knapp makes pointed discussion of the relationship between women, food, and desire; how stunted desires can express themselves in all kinds of ways, from sex-addiction to compulsive shopping.
The lovely foreword by Knapp’s friend, reporter Gail Caldwell, was so intoxicating and affecting, I got lost in it. I forgot it was the introduction.
Narrated by Gabra Zackman, a veteran narrator who has narrated many stories from The Best American Erotica 2006 (Unabridged Selections), and Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry
--Willow Pennell and Aretha Bright