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Bulimia

The author writes about her experience with bulimia in her new book Cuando comer es un infierno. She suffered from bulimia for seven years during her adolescence and struggled daily with weighing herself. Though the experience left her scarred, she wanted to tell her story to give a voice to others suffering from eating disorders. Her book provides a realistic, personal account of living with bulimia and her difficult journey to recovery. It differs from her previous fiction works and recounts her experience with some bitterness.

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Mirela Lungu
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134 views3 pages

Bulimia

The author writes about her experience with bulimia in her new book Cuando comer es un infierno. She suffered from bulimia for seven years during her adolescence and struggled daily with weighing herself. Though the experience left her scarred, she wanted to tell her story to give a voice to others suffering from eating disorders. Her book provides a realistic, personal account of living with bulimia and her difficult journey to recovery. It differs from her previous fiction works and recounts her experience with some bitterness.

Uploaded by

Mirela Lungu
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AUTHOR WRITES OF HER BULIMIA "HELL"

When it comes to potentially lethal eating disorders, adolescent girls are the highest
risk category. Many simply don't survive.

And while 28-year-old-Basque writer Espido Freire lived to tell the story - literally - of
her seven-year-fight with the binge-and-purge eating disorder bulimia, the experience has left
her scarred for life.

In her new book Cuando comer es un infierno, released yesterday, Freire painfully
retraces those seven long years because, as she says, "if a writer isn't able to lend a voice to
those who aren't capable of expressing themselves, then part of their vocation has been lost."

According to Freire, Cuando comer es un inferno "offers a realistic and personal view of
bulimia - the seven years of suffering and the strength it took to get over them." Arriving at
Barajas Airport earlier this week from Scotland, where she has spent the last two months as a
visiting writer to various universities, Freire headed straight for her home in Madrid but
couldn't avoid noticing the billboards filled with skinny models advertising next season's
fashion on the road home

They immediately reminded her of her book and the exhaustion she felt after writing
about the darkest period of her life.

Freire has a strong desire to tell her story - but still, she warns, she doesn't want to
become a poster girl for bulimia. She doesn't just have that story to tell, she stresses. As a
writer, she was the youngest-ever winner of the Planeta Award with her second novel
Melocotones helados in 1998.

Her first two books were works of fiction but now, in Cuando comer es un infierno, she
has gone down the autobiographical road to recount, with some bitterness, her difficult
adolescence - cataloguing her terrible daily battles with the weighing scales.
(EL PAIS English edition with the International Herald Tribune, March 7, 2002)

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. Guessing vocabulary from context. Read each definition below and choose the word
from the list that matches the definition. (2 points, 0.4 each)

lethal, scarred, released, retraces, headed, skinny, bitterness

(a) very thin:________________


(b) went, moved in a particular direction:___________________
(c) marked, wounded:__________________________
(d) anger, resentment:___________________________

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(e) made available to the public:_______________________

2. Answer the following questions according to the text. Try to use your own words. (2
points, 0.5 each)

(a) Why is bulimia defined as a deadly eating disorder?

(b) What did Freire think when she saw the billboards with skinny models?

(c) What literary prize did Freire received for one of her books?

(d) How does Cuando comer es un inferno differ from Freire's previous two books')

3. Rewrite the following sentences maintaining the same meaning (1.5 points, 0.5 each)

(a) While Espido Freire lived to tell the story of her bulimia, the experience has left her scarred
for life. (however)

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(b) According to Freire, Cuando comer es un infierno "offers a realistic and personal view of
bulimia." (Freire says ....)

(c) Freire has spent the last two months as a visiting writer to various universities. (for)

4. Complete the following paragraph with the correct form of the verb in brackets (1.5
points, 0.3 each)

In order to write Cuando comer es un infierno, Freire____________________ (l . have) to


relive her own difficult past. She also ____________________ (2. listen) to 20 case histories
from other bulimics, some ____________________ (3. tell) to her directly, others over the
Internet, and some via telephone. In one of the book chapters, Freire ____________________
(4. describe) her life after the eating disorder. "For almost the last eight years, I
____________________ (5. live) an absolutely normal life," she says.

5. Composition (120 words): Choose one of the following topics. (3 points)

(a) Do you think too much importance is placed on physical appearance? Are there other
factors more important? Please explain.
(b) Are the so-called "skinny models" role models for today's youth? Discuss why or why not.

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