The Good Body

Botox, bulimia, breast implants: Eve Ensler, author of the international sensation The Vagina Monologues, is back, this time to rock our view of what it means to have a "good body." "In the 1950s," Eve writes, girls were "pretty, perky. They had a blond Clairol wave in their hair. They wore girdles and waist-pinchers. . . . In recent years good girls join the army. They climb the corporate ladder. They go to the gym. . . . They wear painful pointy shoes. They don't eat too much. They . . . don't eat at all. They stay perfect. They stay thin. I could never be good."The Good Body starts with Eve's tortured relationship with her own "post-forties" stomach and her skirmishes with everything from Ab Rollers to fad diets and fascistic trainers in an attempt get the "flabby badness" out. As Eve hungrily seeks self-acceptance, she is joined by the voices of women from L.A. to Kabul, whose obsessions are also laid bare: A young Latina candidly critiques her humiliating "spread," a stubborn layer of fat that she calls "a second pair of thighs." The wife of a plastic surgeon recounts being systematically reconstructed--inch by inch--by her "perfectionist" husband. An aging magazine executive, still haunted by her mother's long-ago criticism, describes her desperate pursuit of youth as she relentlessly does sit-ups.Along the way, Eve also introduces us to women who have found a hard-won peace with their bodies: an African mother who celebrates each individual body as signs of nature's diversity; an Indian woman who transcends "treadmill mania" and delights in her plump cheeks and curves; and a veiled Afghani woman who is willing to risk imprisonment for a taste of ice cream. These are just a few of the inspiring stories woven through Eve's global journey from obsession to enlightenment. Ultimately, these monologues become a personal wake-up call from Eve to love the "good bodies" we inhabit.From the Hardcover edition. Eve Ensler Is Back And Has Set Her Sight Slightly Higher With An Intimate Contemplation Of Her Second Greatest Obsession: Her Tortured Relationship With Her Post-forties Stomach. Ensler Toured The World Asking Women About Their Bodies And Gives Us Their Wild And Wonderful And Deeply Moving Stories. She Frames These Stories With Her Own Personal Journey, Serving Up Riotous Excerpts From Her Lifelong Dialogue With Her Stomach - A Sassy And Conniving Antagonist In Its Own Right. We Follow Her Through The Serial Seduction Of Low-carb Diets, Ab Rollers And Personal Trainers, To The Wise Words Of A Woman Who Taught Her How To Love Her Body, And See That It Was Good... The author toured the world asking women about their bodies and gives us their wild and wonderful and deeply moving stories. In this book, she frames these stories with her own personal journey, serving up riotous excerpts from her lifelong dialogue with her stomach - a sassy and conniving antagonist in its own right.