This was a good book, a very good book. The writing style flows and feels easy and comfortable. I wondered as I read it whether it was too easy and too comfortable for the topic. But it wasn't, Yara Zgheib did not hold back the impossibly difficult reality of anorexia and bulimia.
Part of this book is the love story of Anna and Mathias, the love of sticking with someone through it all. Part of this story is the story of family love and loss. But most of this story is the story of Anna and her struggles: her struggle to stay alive, her struggle to gain weight, her struggle to watch her friends suffer, her struggle to remember herself, her struggle to remember her dreams, and her struggle to try and live a life where those dreams are a possibility. "I was ambitious once. I was a dancer, a dreamer, I was loved, I was in love, I loved life. I once had books to read and places to see, babies I wanted to make. I want to want those again."
The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a heartbreaking and hopeful novel.
Part of this book is the love story of Anna and Mathias, the love of sticking with someone through it all. Part of this story is the story of family love and loss. But most of this story is the story of Anna and her struggles: her struggle to stay alive, her struggle to gain weight, her struggle to watch her friends suffer, her struggle to remember herself, her struggle to remember her dreams, and her struggle to try and live a life where those dreams are a possibility. "I was ambitious once. I was a dancer, a dreamer, I was loved, I was in love, I loved life. I once had books to read and places to see, babies I wanted to make. I want to want those again."
The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a heartbreaking and hopeful novel.