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.
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