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Popular Culture Review
mother to live with Harrison’s maternal grandmother, whom she describes as “a
screaming predatory woman” (5). When Harrison is six years old, her mother—
whom the author characterizes as a vain, narcissistic woman who married far too
young—moves into an apartment to pursue a life of her own, leaving her
daughter alone with the grandmother (6). Throughout her youth, Harrison sees
her mother somewhat regularly, but it’s her grandmother who raises her. At age
15, she develops anorexia out of vengeance against her mother who nags her
about losing weight. “You want thin? 1 remember thinking. I’ll give you thin.
I’ll define thin, not you. Not the suggested one hundred and twenty pounds, but
ninety-five. And not size six, but size two” (39). For Harrison, the psychological
wellspring of her anorexia was a cold, distant mother who chastised h \