Customer Reviews

Just Checking

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What I haven't noticed in reviews posted here is a description of this book's form. It's not a continuous narrative; rather, it's made up out of sharp vignettes which each have a title taken from a popular phrase. This does give it the feel of a stand-up routine, of linked pieces, rather than an organic story. However, Colas's intelligent witty writing is not only humorous, but also is one of the best presentations of how "logical" OCD-caused rituals can seem to those who suffer from it and how you become trapped inside your own head with no reference to reality. I did wish the book longer and for it to have a more coherent structure, but it's an amazing first book and a genuinely good entry into the exponentially expanding field of literature deadling with psychological illness -- both in the sense of being well-written and in describing symptoms. People who have relatives or loved ones who suffer from OCD might especially want to read this book for its black humor and excellent descriptions of how it _feels_ to have something most people can't even begin to understand.

You will experience great difficulty returning to work. Also, you may exhibit some strange checking behavior while eating your BLT.

Exhausting. The guilt I felt in deriving enjoyment from Colas' tale of insanity was tempered only by the recognition that facing the brink is just a matter of degrees. Nearly everyone could find a suitable diagnosis at some point in their lives, whether chemical or situational. Few, however, could find the humor to expose their disturbing mental processes as adeptly as Colas has.

I hope that in sharing her story, Emily Colas has derived a great deal of therapeutic benefit. I know I have.

Emily Colas' memoir, Just Checking, is like an uncomfortable stand-up comedy routine. Broken into small chunks of conversational writing with sometimes interesting, sometimes bewildering headings (for example, "Mussolini Ate His Penie"), Colas' account jumps frantically from past to present, her childhood events to her typical day-to-day life as a wife and mother. It's sometimes hard to follow where exactly we are at any given time--and if that's intentional, I'm not sure it really works.

There are some terribly intense, disturbing moments (such as when Colas' apartment fills with garbage and dirt because she becomes wary of cleaning supplies, and she refuses to take a shower for fear of harming her unborn child), but overall the book floats glibly from event to event, nearly discounting Colas' painful descent into the illness. I know that this is was an extremely uncomfortable story to tell, and I like the approach of bringing humor to a subject that normally isn't very funny, but there are times when the writing backs away when it should have really delved deeper.

This is absolutely one of the sharpest, smartest, most honest pieces of writing that I have ever read. Emily Colas is extraordinarily talented and I will eagerly look forward to her next endevour. I am convinced that Colas could tackle any topic with only stellar results. She has the heart of an angel and the wit and style of a superstar. Congatulations, Emily!

With the help of medication Emily Colas has managed to sit down and knock out a book that takes you inside the head of an obsessive compulsive. It's not cute, it's not quirky, it's not charmingly eccentric or any of the other adjectives common TV portrayals of this illness would lead you to believe. It is a living hell that confines Colas to her house and severes her links from society with extreme fear and a mind bent on extrapolating threat from every detail of life. Spots on the sidewalk? Must be disease carrying blood. But through shoes? Well, they soles of them are worn thin in some places...Dinner date with an attractive guy presents a dilemma: switch your poisoned plate fo his while he's in the kitch fetching salt? But then you might get fingered for his murder. Eat it yourself and die? And Colas ends up marrying this guy, who ends up being part of a household where rituals include buying six toothbrushes for colas and then helping her inspect the outer and inner wrapping for air-tightness. Tasting her food at restaurants to be sure there are no ground up hypodermic needles in there...naturally, in spite of "in sickness and in health" it gets to be too much. So Colas hides her fears from her husband for awhile, successfully, until she gives it away one day when she nears the TV to change the volume just as the character starts to vomit blood, and Colas can't contain her terror that the TV screen character may have exposed her to some disease...Cola's writes with candor and lack of self pity. She dispassionately flays the mind of an OCD, and she does so in a spare, no-frills style that includes everything you need to know and no more. It's riveting and horrifying at the same time, and Colas has done a great service towards the understanding of mental illness.

This book performs a delicate balancing act between, on the one hand, presenting the anguish of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and, on the other hand, describing the author's thoroughly human and sometimes amusing attempts to cope with the problem. Through a series of vignettes, we are drawn into the OCD world as Colas experienced it, a strategy which allows the reader to get some idea of just how insidious this disorder can be (it grows on one, a little at a time). Colas's style is edgy; she displays a frankness which apparently put off a few of my fellow reviewers but which I found both engaging and charming. She is a natural humorist, with an honesty that spares neither her reader nor herself. This is an excellent introduction to the topic of obsessive-compulsive disorder and, for those who can handle Colas's occasional irreverence, a delightful read!

I use this book when I teach my Psy101 course (phobias, OCD and hypochondriasis- I read a few blurbs to illustrate to the class these topics). I always have at least 2 students a semester buy this book because they find her story so interesting. I recommend this for anyone who teachs psychology!

Emily Colas is an amazing writer. I loved JUST CHECKING and read it in one sitting. Colas reminds me of David Sedaris--her humor is biting, her perceptions keen, and the events she recounts are eminently memorable. This isn't a book only for obsessive-compulsives--it's for everyone who recognizes that type of behavior in themselves. From AS GOOD AS IT GETS to Howard Stern, to our own personal obsessions about gas leaks or catching a disease from a public phone, this book is about a topic to which we can all relate.

This book is about a woman with OCD. Anyone wanting to know about OCD would like this book. I personally thought this book was hilarious, just thinking someone could be soo crazy. I recomend this book.

Having just finished JUST CHECKING, I'm trying to think of friends to whom I might recycle my copy. That's a tough one.
The biggest plus of this book is that it is so unlike the standard disease-of-the-month narratives we've come to expect. The biggest drawback is that it's so oddly written we hardly know what to make of it. (I was pretty sure for a while that it was really a novel masquerading as biography. It's not.) I did not find it nearly as funny as some readers did--laughed out loud perhaps twice. BUT--

Sometimes it turns out that honesty can be both a style and a subject. In Colas' hands, it's definitely not just a gimmick
(as it so often is in stand-up comic routines, which many reviewers saw as analagous). Her quirky approach takes us places we have not been unless we've suffered from OCD. But why go there at all, some readers may ask. Because like every good writer, by showing us one particular "heart of darkness" (her own), Colas shows us the universal heart of darkness, including, if we have eyes to see, our own.