Rachel, the protagonist in Milk Fed: A Novel, by Melissa Stroder, was reared by a Jewish mother who made her ashamed of and self-conscious about her weight. As an adult, Rachel works at a talent management agency and is a part-time stand-up comedian. This background provides the foundation for a funny novel about obsession with eating and sex, primarily lesbian sex. Rachel falls for Miriam, an obese Orthodox Jew, who tempts Rachel away from restraint in eating. Rachel is propelled into an orgy of eating and, once Miriam gets on board with it, compulsive sex. Mixed with the compulsiveness, however, is tenderness and stand-up comic humor. And scenes with Miriam’s Orthodox family allow for some riffs on Jewishness as well as deeper observations portrayed in ways that any reader can appreciate, regardless of creed.
The pace of the writing in this novel matches the propulsive force of compulsion and the descriptions of the compulsive eating and sex make you live it. Rachel is a likeable and poignant character. There’s a lot of sex – some chapters are nothing but sex – but like the novel as a whole, the narrator’s desire is both compulsive and human. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/melissa-broder/milk-fed/
