Everyone in "Starving" is starving. Everyone in the world is, Olive declares as she barges into the story in the middle. "Why do you think I eat every doughnut in sight?" she asks.

Lovely young Nina, a 20-something anorexic woman, is literally starving herself, of course. She comes into contact with Olive, and Daisy Foster and Harmon, two older people who are having an affair -- first wholly physical, but then blossoming into a real relationship.

But in "Starving", it's hard for people to get the help they know they need. Nina says she wants to get better, but she can't shake her demons, despite all the medical care she's gotten and the love she gets from the unlikely trio of Olive, Harmon and Daisy.

Harmon is starving for love and companionship -- his marriage to Bonnie has become an empty shell. He compares his home to "a damp, unlit cave." We learn that his affair with Daisy began when Bonnie declared that their sex life over, but we also learn that the rest of their relationship has gone hollow with the departure of their four sons. Or maybe it was hollow for a long time, but the demands of the boys had concealed that for years.

But like Nina, Harmon finds it hard to break away. He had envisioned a different life for himself at this point in his life -- all his sons still in town, one of them taking over the hardware store, his & Bonnie's home filled with the chaotic happiness of lots of grandchildren. He dwells on what he can't change: That the boys have left Crosby and he doesn't see any grandchildren in sight.

By the end of the story, though, Harmon starts taking steps to break away, and he seems certain that a break will happen. But he still seems very passive about it.

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THIS STORY:
Change can be terrifying, even when trying to leave a bad situation. I wondered if Nina's death might be the boost Harmon needs to take the steps for him and Daisy to be together. What do you think? And did you also want him to just leave Bonnie? I'm struck that this isn't the first time in this book that I'm rooting for marriages to break up. (Although I may have been too hasty with Henry and Olive in "Pharmacy.")

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