Slim to None

Book excerpt: "A young woman's fatal battle with anorexia, in her own words In the tradition of Go Ask Alice, Prozac Nation, and Girl Interrupted, Slim to None grants readers precious access to the emotional and psychological underpinnings of its author. Step-by-step, readers follow Jenny's long journey through a "wasteland" of failed treatments and therapies, false hope, and abuse by the mental health system that kept her captive most of her life. Although this disease has been at the forefront of public awareness for years, anorexia continues to claim more victims than any other mental illness. Slim to None reveals the glaring inadequacy of the mental health system to treat and fully understand this disease. The first journal of an anorexic to be published posthumously, the book discloses the innermost thoughts, fears, and hopes of a young girl stricken and fighting to recover. Jenny Hendricks painstakingly recorded her experiences as she suffered from and eventually succumbed to this eating disorder. With candor, she recounts being shipped from one doctor to another and subjected to widely varying treatments--all of which ultimately proved unsuccessful. Her father, Gordon Hendricks, fills in this compelling narrative with his own memories of his daughter's struggle."--Publisher's description.