Cake Dreams: A Memoir of Survival

Hoyt J. Phillips, III

Cake Dreams details my experience at Ground Zero, working in NYC after the attacks, being a gay man with anorexia, and undergoing brain surgery.

Cake Dreams: A Memoir of Survival chronicles the harrowing, true story of Hoyt Phillips, who was 25 when he watched from his office window as the Twin Towers were attacked. The young man from North Carolina survived Ground Zero, but the year that followed became a life-or-death struggle with starvation, obsession, alcoholism, cutting, and bingeing that ultimately led to his stay at a treatment center for eating disorders. Then, days before the first anniversary of the attacks, he was wheeled into brain surgery, not knowing if he would survive. Cake Dreams is the riveting account of Hoyt Phillips’ yearlong fight to understand the devastation he witnessed and confront his own mortality.

report abuse

read the book

back the book

add to watchlist

rate the book

to rate this book please Register or Login

tags

addiction, anorexia, brain surgery, eating disorder, gay, gay men, ground zero, inspiration, life-or-death, male anorexia, male eating disorder, memoi...

on 1 bookshelves

on 4 watchlists

5 comments

To leave comments on this or any book please Register or Login

NicolaHoppe wrote 46 days ago

What an intensely written, gripping prologue. You let the reader into your life, sharing an unbelievably embarrassing experience with us. This is very brave and honest, promising an authentic piece of writing which will get under our skin and jolt us awake. Chapter two is very captivating and eye-opening. It made my blood run cold to read how you experienced 9/11, how it looked, smelled and felt like. Your writing is very powerful, Hoyt.
I'll keep this on my WL for further reading.

Best of luck,
Nicola
The Burden of the Badge

report abuse

emarie wrote 98 days ago

Hoyt, Good job, moving right along. The tone is appropriate for the subject matter and you bring out the character well.
--emarie
Jackson Jacob Henry Brown, III

report abuse

Tod Schneider wrote 303 days ago

And some VERY minor errata in chapter 1 you might fix:
In "This past weekend, I go out Saturday night..." I'd suggest editing this into "I went out Saturday night". You don't need "this past weekend" as we can figure that's the Saturday night you're referring to, and if you use "went" instead of "go" the grammar police won't arrest you.
The other thing I'd do is toss out the exclamation mark at the end of vomit. Exclamation marks are best used sparingly, if at all, and vomit doesn't quality as needing one, at least in my book.
That's it for nitpicking. Cheers!

report abuse

Tod Schneider wrote 303 days ago

Good story telling! You bring us right inside your head and let us see your perspective on the world. Work like this intrigues me, getting someone else's internal world view. i think it's brave to put it all down on paper. It's also a great reminder that whatever I complain about in my life, there's always a hundred-fold worse things that people are contending with all the time -- keeps me humble. Best of luck with this!
Tod
http://authonomy.com/books/40646/the-lost-wink/

report abuse

David Price wrote 351 days ago

Hoyt, it seems I'm going to be the first one to have the privilege of commenting on your work. Time constraints mean that I have limited myself to reading the first two chapters today, but it's immediately clear that this is an authentic, gripping and beautifully written piece. Five stars for now, but I will be back for more soon.
David
MASTER ACT: a memoir

report abuse