Milk Fed

I want to read everything of Melissa Broder’s that I can get my hands on. So when I got the ARC for this I was beyond excited! It was everything I could have wanted and more and I ended up reading it in less than a day.

I love the way she writes, it’s not complicated but it’s raw, honest and self aware . She is one of those writers who write things I think and feel but i haven’t been able to put into words myself or express yet.

‘This absence of rejection felt like an embrace’

Oh my goooooooood you are making me so uncomfortable (flame eyes emoji) I LOVE IT!!

A scathingly funny, wildly erotic, and fiercely imaginative story about food, sex, and god.

Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche—both sacred and profane.

I loved The Pisces but I think I love Milk Fed even more. I thought it was a very sensitive approach to eating disorders and self esteem. I felt completely absorbed in Rachel’s story and her journey towards accepting herself.

I struggled with this book to begin with but am glad I persevered and in the end, I found it difficult to put down. It was a funny, self-deprecating romp of a book telling the story of a lapsed Jew, Rachel, her difficult relationship with food, her mother and her burgeoning sexuality. I was disappointed that there wasn't the typical happy ever after but content that Rachel had found happiness within herself.

"Who is that 'out of control' woman you are so afraid of becoming? What does she look like?"

Funny, sexy, perverted, and extremely fun to read! I was reminded of Ottessa Moshfegh (whose narrators are arguably much darker, and riskier). But this was still a cathartically enjoyable read, and very funny. Themes include appetite (both food and sexual), mothers, perfection, why L.A. culture sucks, and what "self-care" really means. I also liked the golem thread of the plot. I could have used fewer dream sequences, and tbh I found the mother plot a bit too typical. MAJOR triggers in here for people with disordered eating, though it definitely contains a very therapeutic/healing message... I'm pretty convinced the author has read Marion Woodman.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

"Life was a lot less bleak when you were staring straight down the barrel of a burrito. Was this how some people lived all the time?"

"It was like being asphyxiated by a part of my own self - the need for approval and validation I so despised. More of me? That was the last thing I wanted!"

"Did anyone genuinely like anything? Most art was bad. I preferred the work of dead people. At least the dead weren't on Twitter."

"I thought about how I wanted to take a knife and cut myself out of me."

I tried to read this one slowly, but I think it's impossible not to get sucked in - I managed to spread it out over 2 days and ended up staying up late to finish it. It's that good.

The main character Rachel's complicated relationship with food is intertwined with her equally complicated relationship with her mother, Judaism, her sexuality, and desire. Milk Fed is messy and raw and wonderful - the writing flows so well whilst remaining nuanced, insightful and complex. I loved the musings on God, and the hallucinations with the golem and the Rabbi.
I loved the secondary characters in the story: Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman who works at Rachel's favourite fro-yo shop, Ana, the co-worker that Rachel wants to mother her, and Ofer, the overly PC self proclaimed super feminist boss.

I hadn't heard of Melissa Broder before reading this, but now I'm going to try and find everything else she's written.