BOOK REVIEWS: Soul Hunger

Soul Hunger A Personal Journey Authors: Sandy Richardson with Susan Wilsie Govier 157 pages, $14.99 Order online at Bulimia.com

This memoir gives an honest glimpse of life at a treatment facility from a person who has been there. Told from a Christian perspective, the opening pages show Sandy boarding an airplane to go to Remuda Ranch for treatment. We are then given a glimpse into the life that brought her to having an eating disorder—in particular, her desire to be a perfect wife and mother and her perceived failure to meet these impossible standards.

Readers are given a candid look at the guilt Sandy feels while trying to be devoted to God, yet obsessed with her looks and weight. In just about every way Sandy sees herself as a failure and it is interesting to have compassion—not disgust—for her. As a reader, you really get the sense that she is not seeing the real picture of herself. Sandy's self-hate goes so deep that she feels sorry for her husband because of her perceived incompetence. As she begins therapy, a transformation happens where a new picture of "normal" emerges.

This is an accessible, easy read for a loved one or an individual who wants inspiration on the road to recovery. Sandy gives an inside account on taking the first step and getting help for an eating disorder with which she suffered in secret for nine years. Included are Bible quotes and scripture, as a well as a great description about becoming "real" from the book The Velveteen Rabbit. Readers are left with the message that the truth really does set you free.

— LW