![roxane gay hunger passage on mindset roxane gay hunger passage on mindset](https://www.meriahnichols.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hunger.jpg)
This compact collection was Gay’s writing debut and is comprised of what I would think of as short shorts. It was just a border between two geographies of grief. This beautifully written collection makes you look, even when you don’t want to, at the realities and experiences of a wide cross section of women. There are two inseparable twin sisters, a grief stricken mother, a stripper, a wealthy suburban housewife, and an engineer. Not only are the stories about a range of experiences, but the characters in each story stand out individually. There is loss, unthinkable abuse, and complicated relationships and marriages. The stories explore a range of different women’s experiences. Gay’s quote about Difficult Women captures the essence of this short story collection. I think women are oftentimes termed ‘difficult’ when we want too much, when we ask for too much, when we think too highly of ourselves, or have any kind of standards…I wanted to play with this idea that women are difficult, when in reality it’s generally the people around them who are the difficult ones.
![roxane gay hunger passage on mindset roxane gay hunger passage on mindset](https://media.s-bol.com/rQWVolg0wp2/778x1200.jpg)
I have also included a quote from Gay before each book description to give you an idea of her voice and her politics. The title of this post definitely refers to the body of writing Roxane Gay has created, but it also refers to the emotional work that is required when reading either her fiction or nonfiction. Today, I want to honor all of the books written by Roxane Gay.
![roxane gay hunger passage on mindset roxane gay hunger passage on mindset](https://lwhspress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hunger.jpg)
She did not become my hero until I saw her interviewed by Trevor Noah about the publication of her book Hunger. Difficult Women was the first book I read and I was both entranced and awed by her writing. Roxane Gay is one of my heroes. I first discovered her short fiction on a trip to Portland while I was browsing in Powell’s Books.