Blowing up buildings , blackmail, brownies and Britney Spears. Those are the four B’s in Mark Brennan Rosenberg’s second book, Eating My Feelings—unless you count the stepmom bitch he swears plotted to send him away (successfully) to fat camp.
Rosenberg makes a Nashville stop August 31 at the Vanderbilt University Barnes and Noble to promote the just-released follow-up to Blackouts and Breakdowns, a tale that ultimately chronicled Rosenberg’s path to sobriety.
So when you peel away the pop culture woven into its narrative, Eating My Feelings is another personal tale from Rosenberg. It provides insight into the pressure for the perfect body that pervades our society. And when you put it that way, Rosenberg’s vivid account of his Janet Jackson dream, his Melrose Place addiction and discovery of the movie Clueless provide entertaining pop culture congruencies for the seldom broached subject.
Straight or gay—men like pretty things. The body image issues in the gay male community to some degree are similar to the pressures felt by our heterosexual female counterparts. Although his book is written from the gay perspective, don’t be surprised to see a female audience at any of Rosenberg’s events. “At the end of the day, everyone has body issues—gay, straight, male or female,” Rosenberg shared. “But I find that women relate to this and like this so much more than gay men and I hope women get as much out of it as gay men.”
From having his summer camp singing dreams snatched away to wrestling with and winning the P90X challenge, Rosenberg examines his dependence on food and his body image issues from a young age all the way through adulthood. Eating My Feelings provides a humorous take on some pretty tough times in Rosenberg’s life.
“I find that finding the humor in horrible, tragic events helps you laugh at the situation and in turn helps you get over it a little bit,” Rosenberg shared. “When you reopen old wounds, you get a little retrospective and you get to take a look at the things that you fucked up. It kinda makes you, on the inside, a little bit better of person.”
And that person on the inside is still in love with Britney Spears. When asked what song from Spears’ catalog best represents his life today, Rosenberg said “Stronger.” “I feel like I’ve overcome a lot over the couple of years even after getting sober and staying sober for almost five years.”
Even though Eating My Feelings was just released, Rosenberg is already looking forward to his third book. “It’s a book about relationships,” Rosenberg laughed. “It’s all about how fairytales, television characters and movie really kinda fuck with your perception of what real love is supposed to be.”
Is it possible that the perennially single Mark Brennan Rosenberg, author of The Single Life blog, has found love? Well, he’s definitely met someone. “It’s pretty crazy. He’s great. My mother met him and was like ‘he’s so nice, I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing with you,’” Rosenberg joked. “No, my mother actually said that—verbatim.”
Joking aside, it’s probably time that Rosenberg gets a happy ending.