Lisa Kotin

There is one thing you need to know about Kotin's writing style before delving into My Confection: Her voice - she's sarcastic and funny and dramatic as all hell. From the very beginning I couldn't tell if certain parts were exaggerations, outright lies, or just the unbelievable truth. Kotin seems to be in constant crisis mode. But by ten pages in, you know what? I couldn't care less. I was laughing too hard. I liked her style of writing more than what she had to say, if that makes sense.

The show more final thing I will say about My Confection is there is actually another thing you need to know: Kotin grows up right before your eyes. Her voice changes. She becomes a little more serious, a little less sarcastic. By that small change her addiction becomes more believable and you end up rooting for her all the more. show less

Addiction is such an ugly word. It's a terrible state of being too. But when we acknowledge someone as an addict, unless we are being flip about something completely harmless, we typically mean that their addiction is to something as troubling as alcohol or drugs. Rarely do we think of someone as being addicted to sugar, at least in the strictest definition of the term. But some people are in fact addicted to it and it can be incredibly detrimental to their life, their health, and their show more well-being. In fact, looking at my own life, I sometimes think I sit balanced precariously on the knife's edge beside sugar addiction myself.

Lisa Kotin doesn't sit on the knife's edge. She is a self-admitted sugar addict and this is her memoir. This is not about how to kick a sugar addiction. This is all about how Lisa has lived with it all of her life and how she continues to live with it. The reader follows Lisa as she details her addiction, as she recounts her family life, the secrets and sneaking and irrational reasoning her addiction drove her to. She tells of the various programs she failed to complete in her attempts to curb the addiction and the programs that failed her. She is no holds barred and unfiltered in telling about the physical effects of sugar addiction on her body. She is open about the hold it had over her life, the binging, the need, and the suffering that was the result. There is nothing sanitized here but there are moments of humor that help to leaven the memoir a bit.

The writing is confessional and sometimes rough. Kotin weaves in the story of her road to becoming an actor and performer as well as her fraught and sometimes dysfunctional love life, and although any addiction impacts all areas of life, these parts exist somewhat uneasily together in this memoir. Generally life isn't so easy and one dimensional that everything can be traced back to one cause. But it is clear that the desire to lay her hands on sugary foods or the mental energy needed to prevent herself from doing so drives much of what she does and thinks. As for many addicts, Kotin takes one step forward and three steps back. This isn't a road map to kick a sugar addiction, this is the story of a decades long, ongoing battle and the end of the memoir reflects that, giving no easy answers and not claiming victory. It's an unusual addiction memoir, one that gave me, with my bag of fun size candy bars tucked away, pause for sure. show less

I really enjoyed this book- though I was reluctant to take seriously a book about sugar addiction. I was extremely comfortable with the author's style, and not only was I completely okay with her affinity for profanity, I think it rang true, setting a casual, conversational tone. Would like to read a follow-up (how is she doing lately?) and will definitely read whatever she publishes next.

I feel mislead. The title and cover suggest a light-hearted, fun romp through a tendency to eat too many sweets. Not so, my friends. This is about addiction in the true sense of the word, and this book is heavy with psychological distress. I feel like Kotin wants us to learn from her struggles, but I didn't relate to her, I just wanted her to stop hurting herself. Or at least to stop telling me about it.

I do think she has a gift for writing, but this was not a joy to read. I don't know if show more it would be helpful to others struggling with an addition to sugar. The biggest upside I found was that this book didn't take too long to read. show less