This is a really good book. It’s difficult to say that I enjoyed reading it because it’s an extremely sensitive topic, thought one that deserves more attention than it has been getting. Sadly, though I feel that this is an important book, I don’t think that it will be as well-circulated as it needs to be.
A Trick of the Light addresses male anorexia. It is told from the point of view of Mike’s disease, who whispers in his ear as if it is his best friend. Rather than desiring good for Mike, however, the disease tells him to make friends with a girl who worships anorexia as a goddess, forces him to stop eating and to feel guilty when he does eat, and teaches him tricks for fooling his parents into believing he is getting calories that he isn’t. Mike also runs, a lot. He quickly goes from being overweight and self-conscious to underweight and severely unhealthy. He pushes away his family and his former best friend because his disease tells him that they do not want the best for him.
The downward spiral that Mike takes is quick and painful. It’s a short book that reads quickly, but the subject is so incredibly sad. Though it does turn itself around eventually, with a lot of reluctance on Mike’s part, it’s a scary display of how this disease can totally distort one’s view of reality. Metzger does well to address this disease in men, as people may forget that men also suffer from societal pressures in regards to their looks, and not all can rise above it in healthy ways.
It’s not a book I’d say I loved. I can’t say I’d pull it off the shelf and recommend it to someone. It’s more that it feels like something people should read, in order to raise awareness and promote alertness to symptoms of this disease in the men or boys they love. Still, it’s a very well-written and emotional book, and I wouldn’t discourage people from reading it if they thought it sounded interesting. And it is an issue that deserves more attention than it gets.
