I read this even though I dang well know better than to read triggering books like this when Im really stressed out and having anxiety attacks like I was the other day. Brilliant move, self. So be warnd, if that's an issue for you.

I think the fact that this book was so triggering is actually an indicator of how good it is. If Portias writing wasnt so engaging and she wasnt so unflinchingly honest, I wouldnt have been able to connect with it and see so much of myself in it, which is what set me off. At one point, she was talking about her food diary and how she didnt just keep track of food and calories, but also writes abusive notes to herself in it to motivate her. She said one of those notes was YOU ARE A FAT UGLY DYKE and I had to set the book down and walk away for a bit. That was my food diary in highschool, exactly.

What I think this book does very well is plainly show the way an eating disordered persons mind works. You can see how its not just about food and weight, its about the crushing feeling of not measuring up, failure, and disappointment in all areas of life. But at the same time, its not just one thing they can control like a lot of people (even therapists) try to reduce eating disorders down to. Yes, its about all that other stuff, but it is also about weight and eating, really and truly. Our culture is monumentally screwed up about weight and appearance. That has an effect. It means something very powerful in our culture when a woman is whittled down to nothing and its rewarded in a lot of ways. Its not just some crazy coincidence that all this other anxiety and self-hatred just happens to manifest as an obsession with weight loss. I think Portias writing makes very clear both elements of this disease.

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If you are expecting to get any insight into Ally McBeal or Ellen, forget it. This was a few hundred pages of what Portia ate, or more likely, didn't eat. The disease is horrible. But frankly, I couldn't garner much sympathy for her. Her disdain of fat people, her self-absorption, well...it just didn't do it for me.

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Was really looking forward to reading this book. I finally gave up about half way through. It just went on and on with the same thing. It just seemed like it was the same chapter over and over with just a slight change. Just wasn't what I was expecting.

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Very gripping. Not a dull moment. I loved this book. Bravo Portia for such honesty and courage.

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Portia de Rossi is known for portraying hard, self-confident women in tv shows, but in reality she lived a life lacking of self confidence and fighting internal demons. As I wasn't aware of Portia de Rossi until she was out and dating Ellen, most of this story was completely new to me and very interesting.

Interesting to say the least that this now proud gay woman who is married to an outspoken lesbian, there were some moments where I was ready for her to meet Ellen and her life to start changing! There were quite a few pages devoted to the body issues she was having and the means with which she was manipulating her exercise or eating habits to achieve what she thought would be the perfect body. I am not sure this was touched on enough, but I think a big part of her issues started with the modeling at a young age and a mother who supported a 12 year old dieting. I wish she had put more detail into the mother/daughter relationship and how that probably brought her to the issues she was trying to overcome.

Overall a great celebrity book, that I would recommend to readers who are interested in reading the details of how Portia de Rossi came onto the Hollywood scene and the things that she hide from the outside world.

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Portia is lucky to be alive. It is a well-written story about her experiences with food. I'm surprised she was able to get through it as easily as it seems she has. I wish her well.
This isn't a "how to" recovery book. It is her journey. I think that is a positive part of the book. It describes it, but seemingly a bit at a distance.

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"Unbearable Lightness" is an intimate, honest, raw, powerful portrait of a successful Hollywood actress who almost killed herself in her obsessive quest for physival perfection to fit into our society's mold of what a young pretty woman should look like. At first simply wishing to fit into wardrobe sample sizes without embarrassment, Portia severely restricted her caloric intake, then was caught in cycles of binging and purging until, weighing merely 82 lbs, she could no longer function without debilitating joint pain. Diagnosed with lupus, she realized how close she was to dying and bravely chose to live. As she closely self-examined her motivation and saw how unattainable, unnecessary, and exhausting her need to be skinny was, she strove to replace her well-established, time-consuming destructive habits with a new way of life, which included counseling and medication, plus physical activities such as horse riding, walking, and learning to fly, but never again regimented exercise and calorie-counting dieting. Finally unafraid to be her natural lesbian self after making peace with her very private mother and dead father, Portia found happiness and fulfillment with her loving wife Ellen.

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