• Homepage

  • Marge's Bio

  • Body in Space

    • Summary
    • Metamorphosis - Excerpt
    • Early Comments
    • Publications
  • Essays

    • Demolishing the Centrality of Whiteness
    • Earth Wonders
    • Here I Stand
    • The Face of Budget Cuts
  • 2 Octogenarians Reading

    • Biography of Melville
  • Forum - Books

  • Members

  • Site Rules

  • Contact

  • More...

    Use tab to navigate through the menu items.
    To see this working, head to your live site.
    • Categories
    • All Posts
    • My Posts
    xxpaulmartin12345x
    Dec 30, 2017
      ·  Edited: Dec 31, 2017

    Florence in Ecstasy

    in Novels

    Florence in Ecstasy by Jessie Chaffee (‘97) Hannah, the protagonist, is a young woman with a keen eye for art and a life-threatening eating disorder. After losing her job in a Boston museum, she travels to Florence, a city where art enfolds her at every step. Though she seems to have a strong desire to live, she is also drawn to Saint Catherine and other saints who sought the absolute through self-abnegation. This siren song really could kill her. Her attempts to embrace life through a rowing club and through love are thwarted by her feeling that food is an emblem for the loss of self- control. By putting Hannah’s struggle in the context of these saints, Jessie enlightens about what an eating disorder feels like from the inside and how it really is not something new.


    0 comments
    0
    0 comments
    • White Facebook Icon