HOME PRAISE FOR BITTER ICE
Purchase Bitter Ice From The Author
"Dr. Lawrence offers a riveting and compassionate account of the life of a family dealing with an eating disordered member. The significance of this work is in the eloquent and coherent presentation of the dimensions of the experience so vivid the reader appears to be an invisible participant in the family drama. The rarity of this book is that the eating disordered individual is her husband whose life is chronicled from his college athlete days through 'hospitalization and therapy when he weighed just over one hundred pounds....' Bitter Ice is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of eating disorders, the immense pain and disruption within families, and the hope that treatment brings for the individuals involved."
Dr. Marie Shafe, Executive Director, International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals.
"Bitter Ice is one of the most riveting, unusual, and disturbing memoirs I have ever read. I could not put it down."
Peter J. Smith, author of A Good Family
"I have treated countless forms of anorexia, bulimia, and other disorders. The realism and pain of the addictions depicted in Bitter Ice made the reading of this book compelling, powerful, and all too realistic. I recommend it to anyone who has ever battled with these addictions, and to all those who love them."
Dr. Ira Sacker, bestselling author of Dying To Be Thin
"Barbara Lawrence is a born writer. She takes us into a world of private horror that makes you want to shout, 'get out'!"
Evan Thomas, Assistant Managing Editor, Newsweek Magazine
"A haunting account of being married to someone obsessed with food and excercise."
Bella English, The Boston Globe
"Bitter Ice is both timely and provocative, offering insight into an often overlooked area of family therapy for those suffering through an eating disorder. The reader is able to hear and feel the difficulties of navigating the complicated and complex journey through a family suffering with an eating disorder. [Lawrence] thoroughly explores and reveals her personal struggle. Clear and compassionate, this is a remarkably helpful and most welcome addition for clinicians and [laypersons] themselves."
Dr. Don Branum, Chairman of the advisory Board of Massachusetts Eating Disorder Association, Inc.
"This scene from a marriage is all the more compelling because it is true...In writing this chronicle of her marriage, Lawrence provides an all too clear picture of her own complicity in her husband's illness. However, the toll it exacts from their life together and their relationships with others is the real story."
Booklist
A gripping memoir looks at a man's obsession- and a woman's struggle to help him."
Jennifer Soong: Redbook Magazine
Her husband's obsessions are unfamiliar and intriguing (even his doctor didn't think men could be anorexic, and anorexia is the most familiar of his problems) and the textured settings, particularly the privileged world in which she grew up, give distinction to this version of a woman's reluctant escape from an abusive marriage."
Bostonia
"The strength of Bitter Ice is that it reveals as much about the author as her husband, and chronicles her own journey from denial to awareness."
Sara Nelson, SELF Magazine
