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A review by sarratbb
Jours sans faim by Delphine de Vigan
5.0
This is the first novel I read by this author, and certainly not the last. Her writing style and the topics she discusses make her one of my favorite French writers.
Now, although we are slightly disappointed with Laura's deceiving, we can see a wonderful message behind this story. Indeed, she built a wonderful relationship (not romantic) with her doctor, one of confidence, loyalty and vulnerability where she can feel heard and understood, a team that can only win against Lanor. This illustrates how human and emotional relationships between the medical staff and the patients can be, and how it affects their recovery. It reminded me of an interdisciplinarity course I had last year about the influence of literature in medicine (I recommend you read about narrative medicine / narrative therapy, which is, in my opinion, the center of this novel).
Then you get the last chapter (and a paragraph in the penultimate chapter) : apparently, Laure and Dr. Brunel had kids ???? Now maybe I am too dumb, did they have sex at the hospital? I guess she was happy since she wanted that but it is still inappropriate if that's what is implied, I hope they just built a family later down the line, but I don't have much hope since it is said that after she left the hospital she went back to see him and was talking about "the kilograms she was about to offer him"? I guess that was referring to the babies?
And yes I sound picky and maybe even a prude, I know there are weird taboo romances out there that are absolutely inappropriate compared to this where Laure is happy in the end (she loves him, they are both adults,.. whatever) ; it's just that the message about therapy and medicine that I could get from the whole story, and the deep psychological level and seriousness got lost in that last chapter for romantic purposes? This doesn't destroy the novel obviously, I still love it very much, I just didn't expect that? (Maybe I didn't make much sense). Also, I guess she is indeed still trying to heal and to kick Lanor in the ass since she now has the responsibility of children?? So that is a good thing I presume. Although she is still very much struggling, and loneliness leads her to that dark place since she depends on others a lot (very human thing, I am not criticizing negatively, just making observations on how you can understand that ending).
On another note, I loved the language used, the pace, the way you enter Laure's mind but in 3rd person, so it's still somehow a little formal? The mixture of slang and academic French, the way the dialogues were just mixed up in the paragraphs without any punctuation to distinguish them, the analogies and stories were also very inspiring, as well as the rhimes that she created here and there.
I am so eager to read more by this author, and I highly recommend => trigger warnings : anorexia, bulimia, domestic violence, suicide, grooming, verbal abuse.
Spoiler
This novel is about Laure, a 19-year-old woman who suffers from anorexia. She is committed to a hospital in order to gain weight and hopefully heal. Her situation was so bad she could not sit and was not able to talk coherently anymore, a doctor called Dr. Brunel found her and managed to convince her to get treated. Laura writes down most of her thoughts and daily activities in a journal which (I think) gives us this beautiful novel. We learn about her illness, childhood traumas, and toxic family, but also about the new people she meets and forms relationships with at the hospital (other patients and the staff). We also learn about all the aspects of her disorder as well as the causes, consequences and treatments she goes through. This whole novel was a mixture of hope and tragedy. But we lose hope close to the end, when Laure introduces Lanor (short of l'anorexie (anorexia)), an alter ego that takes over whenever she loses control. It takes over when she realizes just how much weight she has gained (although it is barely enough). I have to talk about the crush Laure has been feeling for Dr. Brunel, because in the end, she almost wants to stay hospitalized forever in order to see him every day. However, this was not possible and she had to gain two more kilos to be let out and that was too much for Lanor to handle. So she stuffed her shirt with objects in order to be let out earlier. Which happened since her doctor fully trusted her.Now, although we are slightly disappointed with Laura's deceiving, we can see a wonderful message behind this story. Indeed, she built a wonderful relationship (not romantic) with her doctor, one of confidence, loyalty and vulnerability where she can feel heard and understood, a team that can only win against Lanor. This illustrates how human and emotional relationships between the medical staff and the patients can be, and how it affects their recovery. It reminded me of an interdisciplinarity course I had last year about the influence of literature in medicine (I recommend you read about narrative medicine / narrative therapy, which is, in my opinion, the center of this novel).
Then you get the last chapter (and a paragraph in the penultimate chapter) : apparently, Laure and Dr. Brunel had kids ???? Now maybe I am too dumb, did they have sex at the hospital? I guess she was happy since she wanted that but it is still inappropriate if that's what is implied, I hope they just built a family later down the line, but I don't have much hope since it is said that after she left the hospital she went back to see him and was talking about "the kilograms she was about to offer him"? I guess that was referring to the babies?
And yes I sound picky and maybe even a prude, I know there are weird taboo romances out there that are absolutely inappropriate compared to this where Laure is happy in the end (she loves him, they are both adults,.. whatever) ; it's just that the message about therapy and medicine that I could get from the whole story, and the deep psychological level and seriousness got lost in that last chapter for romantic purposes? This doesn't destroy the novel obviously, I still love it very much, I just didn't expect that? (Maybe I didn't make much sense). Also, I guess she is indeed still trying to heal and to kick Lanor in the ass since she now has the responsibility of children?? So that is a good thing I presume. Although she is still very much struggling, and loneliness leads her to that dark place since she depends on others a lot (very human thing, I am not criticizing negatively, just making observations on how you can understand that ending).
On another note, I loved the language used, the pace, the way you enter Laure's mind but in 3rd person, so it's still somehow a little formal? The mixture of slang and academic French, the way the dialogues were just mixed up in the paragraphs without any punctuation to distinguish them, the analogies and stories were also very inspiring, as well as the rhimes that she created here and there.
I am so eager to read more by this author, and I highly recommend => trigger warnings : anorexia, bulimia, domestic violence, suicide, grooming, verbal abuse.