Rayni Joan

The Skinny: Adventures of America's First Bulimic Rayni Joan

Funny! Sexy! Moving! She thought she was the first one since ancient Rome. Her mother wished she could do it, too. Her doctor called it "a great weight control technique." In repressive 40's and 50's small-town America, no one knew of "eating disorders," but everyone yearned to be "skinny." Struggling with a spider-web of parental and social animosity up to and including abuse, Rowena Gay Wine is torn between a thirst for all of life's pleasures and her gut-wrenching secret. She survives -- even thrives -- with imagination, determination, and humor. Here is a novel that runs the gamut of timeless human experience, from terror to tickling, from deep love to shallow sex, from "baby whispering" to an intervention by angels that keeps Rowie miraculously alive, and much more in between, even including a car chase! Along the way, Rowie's self-awareness, personal insights, and creative courage open the floodgates for a whole generation of women to escape from limitations and doubt.