I just finished Francine Prose's essay "Gluttony". It's part of a series published by Oxford University Press exploring contemporary attitudes towards each of the seven deadly sins.
I've read 4 or 5 of Prose's novels over the years and I've always liked--but not loved--them. Her writing is clever, insightful, and entertaining, but I read fiction for the characters, and many of hers tend to be more caricatures than fully developed, complex human beings.
In any case, I truly enjoyed this short work, which explores the connection between historical and contemporary views towards gluttony, which we commonly refer to today as overeating. She compares modern judgements towards those who can't--or don't--control their appetites with medieval visions of the torments that gluttons experience in hell, pointing out strong parallels between the language that dieters use today to describe their lapses (sin, indulgence) and the traditional religious language used for sin.
It's certainly worth picking up: a quick read, intelligent, well-written, and relevant.
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