Foust's work fits neatly within the genre of the mental-illness tell-all, though the lack of restraint and stylistic...
In her debut memoir, Foust offers a meticulously documented account of the mysteries of her OCD.
From an early age, the author was made aware of her unfounded compulsions, particularly her obsessions with syllables and snapping fingers, as well as her fear of fainting, uneven numbers and, most inconvenient of all, the sun. Her religious background only added additional pressure for normalcy, though Foust's promises “to stop stealing and touching yourself all the time” did little to convince God to vanquish her problems. Though she experienced familial support, at times this support felt wholly conditional, contingent on her ability to acclimate herself with those around her without causing too much trouble. A slew of doctors and counselors offered support as well, though Foust found the most solace in the statistics related to her condition, such as the fact that teens “spend at least 83 percent of their thought process time worrying about the way their actions will make them appear in the eyes of their friends and classmates.” Unfortunately, this sense of self-consciousness permeates the narrative, creating a bloated tome of seemingly endless detail that does little to shed new light on a familiar story. The author is at her best when she weaves the ramifications of her illness organically throughout the narrative—though often these effects become the focal point of the story, overshadowing the character herself.
Foust's work fits neatly within the genre of the mental-illness tell-all, though the lack of restraint and stylistic competence makes for a lackluster reading experience.Pub Date: April 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4391-9250-4
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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