The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death.
If even paranoids have real enemies,Washington Post"Sunday Style" editor Weingarten humorously demands respect for his own minor mental derangement. Before heading to Washington D. C., Weingarten ran theMiami Herald's Sunday magazine. Miami colleague Dave Barry's foreword reveals some stylistic similarities: like Barry, Weingarten takes an ordinary--or only slightly odd--situation and pushes it to its limit. There's a fair amount of true medical information scattered amid satire, sidebars, and tongue-in-cheek charts in chapters on hypochondria, the hypochondriac's relationship with physicians, and a range of behaviors, symptoms, and conditions (e.g., headaches, hiccups, heart disease, tumors, ulcers, obesity, smoking, alcoholism, pregnancy, excretion, and "things that can take out an eye"). Weingarten proudly claims a lifetime of hypochondria, a disease abruptly cured several years ago when he was diagnosed with hepatitis C: what doctors call "the next epidemic." So perhaps Weingarten is a posthypochondriac who recalls the pleasures of imaginary illnesses while coping with all-too-real health problems.Mary Carroll--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.