Eleanor Wood

Staunch

Eleanor Luhar

I finished this book over a week ago now but didn't get round to writing up this review because so much has been going on. You would've thought the lockdown would bring weeks of relaxation and boredom, but apparently that isn't quite the case in my house.
Anyway, onto the book. I honestly could have read the whole thing and not even realised it's a memoir. It's written in such a fantastic, rather comical way - it is thoroughly entertaining read despite the number of hardships and misfortune the author endures. These difficulties include bulimia, a break-up from a long-term, very serious relationship, surviving and escaping a pretty damn toxic relationship, and having her step-dad (who she is extremely close to) leave her mother, and thus, her.
Wood alternates between the 'current' day, where she is on holiday with three older female relatives in India, and the past - anywhere from her own past experiences to the childhood and history of her family members. It's amazing how much detail she includes, and the anecdotes from her grandmother's and great aunts' pasts sound like stories in their own right. It's quite amazing that it is all based on reality.
Side note, it's quite funny to me that the author's name is also Eleanor, and that she suffered with an eating disorder. It made me feel a kind of connection to her, I guess. I definitely related to her in a fair few ways.
Eleanor offers some surprisingly positive insights and revelations, especially toward the end of the book. For example, she describes how she has begun to accept the uncertainty of life and the impossibility of perfection all the time. She also mentions how she stops relying on disordered eating behaviours, as she realises that there is far more to life than shrinking yourself.
I really, really enjoyed this, which is quite surprising as I don't usually read memoirs or anything like this, really. Eleanor is portrayed as a really likeable and relatable character, and definitely very down-to-earth and raw in discussing her experiences and thoughts. 4.5 stars!

Staunch

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