Saïd Sayrafiezadeh on Debt, Cults, and Our Inner Algorithms
The narrator of your story “ Minimum Payment Due ” is mired in debt and, from the outset, trying to
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“Louder Than Hunger” joins a very small shelf of novels and memoirs that address eating disorders from a male point of view. Credit…Ben Wiseman LOUDER THAN HUNGER , by John Schu Jake Stacey is trying to erase himself from the world. Just 13, he is wasting away — shunning food and rollerblading frantically to drop additional pounds. A part of him dreams of performing on Broadway someday, but a nightmarish inner voice doesn’t want him to have a future at all. “It’s louder than the hunger in my stomach,” Jake tells us. It shouts, “YOU — ARE — REPULSIVE!” Another voice, softer but no less urgent, says: “We need help. We’re going to die.” Plenty of novels and memoirs deal with anorexia, but few speak from a male point of view. Women are three times more likely to be anorexic than men, according to the National Institute of Mental Health , but the shelf of anorexia novels and memoirs would suggest an even greater gap. John Schumacher, a librarian and writer who has built a career of inspiring kids to love reading, puts Jake on that shelf in “Louder Than Hunger.” Schumacher, who goes by John Schu (because children call him Mr. Schu), has produced a harrowing and life-affirming novel-in-verse for young people. Jake has become skeletal and his hair is falling out, but it takes a while for his family to act. This bullied boy (taunts of “Loser. Wimp. Freak.” have wounded him for more than a year) hides his dwindling body in baggy sweatshirts. His mother can’t see his health crisis through her own fog of depression. Jake and his father don’t connect. His grandmother is a treat — she gave him his love of Streisand and Sondheim — but doesn’t push. Jake’s volunteer work saves him. A nursing home resident he enjoys reading to sounds the alarm. Jake is sent to Whispering Pines, a psychiatric treatment center. Healing begins — slow to start, and with sawtooth progress. Over time, Jake learns to quiet the voice. He connects with others. He regains a sense of who he […]
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The narrator of your story “ Minimum Payment Due ” is mired in debt and, from the outset, trying to
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