The Appetites of Girls

May 26, 2014
Moses’s debut is perfectly timed for summer—it’s a beach read following the lives of four coeds who begin rooming together at Brown University in 1993. The author delves into the friends’ backstories through multiple point-of-view switches, mining their emotionally charged relationships with family, men, and food with clear-eyed prose. Moses focuses on college and the years after graduation, but a baby shower reunion in 2003 bookends the story. Ruth is overweight, insecure, and sheltered by her Jewish family. She struggles as much with food as she does her mother’s expectations and boundary issues. In Opal’s opaque and unfortunately undeveloped story, her mother’s wanderlust and immaturity have disastrous consequences for her 11-year-old, whose subsequent fear of sexuality results in a growing asceticism. Francesca uses food to deal with her anger over her parents’ neglect and their obsession with keeping up appearances, eventually channeling it into a magazine career and a no-strings relationship policy. And Setsu, an adopted Japanese girl, becomes a musical prodigy, but her adopted older brother, also a prodigy, has larger appetites and slowly consumes her confidence and her parents’ attention, leaving her susceptible to a controlling boyfriend. Moses employs a familiar literary structure, following four women’s friendship in college and beyond, which helps turn her story into comfort reading. Agent: Matthew Bialer, Greenberger Associates.

April 15, 2014
Four college suitemates, each with her own frustrated desires, reunite at a baby shower. After 11 years, will any of them have found real happiness? Moses' debut novel thoughtfully evokes the interior lives of these women, distinguishing each with her unique heartbreaks. We begin with Ruth, the eldest daughter of an immigrant mother whose expectations she can never hope to meet. So her mother "helps" her study for her bat mitzvah by learning all the lines herself; she "helps" her write an essay by revising each sentence until Ruth's words are erased; worse, she quashes any attempt at independence. Francesca, born into a privileged New York family, also feels stifled by her mother, who wants only the best for her and manages to control everything but her daughter's appetite. Francesca's body bears witness to her desire for freedom. Setsu, grateful to have been adopted, tries to please everyone with sweet smiles and impeccable behavior. Since her biological parents were gifted musicians, she, too, has excelled at her violin lessons. All is well until her parents adopt a brother for her--a brother whose own voracious appetite for attention soon strips Setsu of her dreams. In contrast, Opal has traveled the world (or at least the resorts) with her glamorous mother, who effortlessly attracts men. Opal's attempt to emulate her mother, however, leads to a devastating experience. Suitably damaged, the suitemates endeavor to navigate the choppy waters of college life, dodging unsavory boyfriends and traumatic memories. Organized into chapters that shift among the four women's perspectives, the novel effectively reads as a collection of carefully crafted short stories. While each woman's past is compassionately drawn, the revelatory moments of life-affirming changes are oddly absent. A beautifully written but unsatisfying tale of women finding courage.

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June 15, 2014

Four young women from a wide variety of backgrounds and upbringings become roommates at Brown University. Each girl has had different pressures in childhood that have been linked to food. As the group matures the roommates struggle to become the women they want to be, although their food-related issues hamper their progress. While they don't always agree with--or even understand--one another, they vow to stay in touch after college. Each eventually confronts and conquers her demons, making a happy reunion possible. In this first novel, Moses writes from her own life experiences: as a child in New Jersey, at a private secondary school in New York, as an undergraduate at Brown, and in graduate school at Georgetown. VERDICT The author's solutions to the deep-seated psychological issues behind eating disorders are somewhat simplistic, but readers of general fiction will be entertained by this novel.--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence

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