Marnelle Tokio’s "More Than You Can Chew"
More Than You Can Chew is Marnelle Tokio’s first novel, which is written is partially biographic manner. The novel is actually a story about one high-school graduate Marty, who suffers from anorexia. The entire book is the girl’s narrative while kept in the hospital. Evidently, she ha problems with eating, or to be precise, with the absence of appetite. Marty is surrounded by other anorexics, whom she eminently dislikes. They all are forced to eat their daily meals, which is a tremendous burden that requires much effort. “Start eating girls,’ Nurse Brown says. The smiles fade.”
Marty is a controversial character, whose recovery occurs at the end of the book. Marty is a young girl, who is a high-school senior, and suffers from eating problems. Her illness is so severe that she is put into the hospital. However, she tried to avoid getting tot he hospital by cheating doctors. When he get to the hospital eating disorders unit, she resists the severe Nurse Brown, “we strongly encourage you to eat norm... solid food.” But Marty recovers only at the end of the book, and denies meals at all times. Nurse Brown is harsh, and even turns to violent techniques, “then we will have to tube you.”
The setting of the novel is the hospital. The only exception in the narrative is Marty’s flashback to two years earlier at the beginning of the book. Her path from acute illness to recovery is filled with many unexpected experiences and turns. An outstanding example of a conflict inside of her is the attempt to commit suicide. Marnelle Tokio maintains quite a sarcastic tone of writing throughout the book. Sometimes the author uses very positive and beautiful characteristics to describe miserable scenes, and sometimes portrays things using metaphors, “it hurts to look at her.”  
The main theme of the novel is, of course, eating disorders. The main character of the story suffers from anorexia, and depicts all the horrible facts concerning treatment and the hospital. The author of the novel clearly describes Marty’s antipathy toward her fellow patients, which also represents the negative attitude towards the illness itself. 
“It hurts to look at her,” think Marty, glancing at little Lily. This quotation in all its simplicity describes the misery of anorexics, and contributes to the readers’ perception of the illness. “Start eating, girls,” Nurse Grown says. The smiles fade,” which describes the nature of anorexia, and the attitude of anorexics toward food. “We strongly encourage you to eat norm... solid food,” says the nurse. This request completely conforms to the main theme of the novel, and point out that Marty has problems with eating. And then when Marty refused to eat, Nurse Brown said, “then we will have to tube you.” This last quotation describes the miserable and sometimes violent conditions in the hospital, and the negative approach of Nurse Brown. 
First, the novel is maintained in humorous tone, however the events and the scenes that the author describes are full of grief, anger, and misery. Another conflict found in the novel appears when we try to analyze Marty’s attitude toward fellow patients. She does not like either of them (except Lily), and this fact means that she does not like anorexics. But she is anorexic as well, which mean that she he dislikes herself too.
 Nurse Brown is the negative figure of the novel, who can be compared to the chief nurse Ratchett in One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. She treats the patients in a harsh manner regardless of their age, and sometimes overestimates patients’ illnesses and is being violent allegedly for grater good. Marty’s parents are slightly described as bad ones: alcoholic mother, and absent father are described in such a way, that the description provides more information about Marty’s negative attitude towards them, than actual description of them.