Dostoevsky once wrote “beauty will save the world”. Today, however, we appear to have a complicated relationship with beauty. Much contemporary literature tackles the negative effects that a societal obsession with beauty can have. These narratives, however, often devolve into stereotypes, unable to establish a true connection with their readers. This is not the case with Claire Hennessy’s last book Nothing Tastes As Good, which successfully deals with anorexia not as a teenager caprice, but as a mental health issue.
A Trinity graduate, Hennessy writes young-adult and children’s literature. She is also Puffin Ireland editor at Penguin Random House and has recently started up a literary journal, Banshee. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to literature, yesterday evening the Trinity Literary Society (LitSoc) hosted an event in House Six’s Eliz Rooms, awarding her with Honorary Patronage of the society. As she entered the crowded room, her turquoise coat and her bright smile gave a sense of her being naturally able both to empathise with her characters and to interact with her readers. This is the key for understanding her success as a writer.
As was said during the event, Nothing Tastes As Good has no room for American stereotypes. The main character, Julia, is not blonde, is not middle-class and is definitely not a queen bee. She is chubby and goofy. Nobody would say she is beautiful. A former schoolmate Annabel, now a ghost as her heart failed due to anorexia, tries to help her to overcome final-year pressures. The problem is she is not a guardian angel, as she still angrily believes she was not mentally and physically ill when she was alive. In encouraging Julia to starve herself to regain control of her nerves, Annabel pushes her towards anorexia too.
The name Annabel is a reminder of the words “anorexia” and “angel”, almost as though they should interlink in the prototype of a perfect, beautiful woman. Annanel’s death clearly demonstrates that human perfection is unattainable. Her heart literally cracks against social pressures, while everyone around is insisting on her being imperturbable to any critique either on her life or on her body. She is only 17 when she dies, but, during her life, everyone forces her to behave as a full-grown woman. She is the victim of a consumerist and a frantic époque with no time for physical insecurities and individualism. Annabel’s whole life is an attempt to figure out how to be successful without shutting down her fears of not being pretty enough. As she fails, Julia is called to continue the job.
Throughout Nothing Tastes as Good, Julia’s life goes on a downward spiral. When her grapple for control intensifies, she discovers that not everything in life can be planned. She finds herself weaker than expected, needing a way to reinvigorate her nerves. While her professional and personal issues grow more and more complicated, she finds herself in need of a safety valve.
Julia stops eating, because she feels that is the least she can do. Finding this manageable, she starts to believe mental prettiness can affect her physical look too. As she learns how to control the needs of her body, those of her mind slowly slip away from her. She can be saved, though. She is not lost yet. Julia’s experience turns out to be the catharsis for which Annabel is waiting. Looking at herself in a mirror, Annabel realises she cannot escape from her problems anymore and she finally understands that the link between physical beauty and social control can be potentially deadly.
Nothing Tastes as Good is a brilliant critique of the twenty-first century materialistic and consumerist society that seems almost happy to see women crack under the pressure. In the trial for self-acceptance and individualism, it is a reminder that beauty does not only relate to the body. Annabel and Julia are similar in the obsession they have for control. They are both victims of an extremely demanding world that wants them to shut down their insecurities under a glow of physical prettiness. Sadly, when Dostoevsky trusted beauty as a saviour, he could not predict it would have corrupted this way.
