Just Checking: Scenes from the life of an obsessive-compulsive
New York MagazineHilarious, harrowing.San Diego Union-TribuneJust Checkingtwitches with pain and pulses with insight....It's also so enjoyable, and so frequnetly laugh-out-loud hilarious, you'll feel guilty profiting from Colas' agony.Dallas Morning NewsA wonderful little book....Deseret NewsIn the literature of mental illness, this one is destined to be a classic....Every worrier will recognize in Colas a true sister. Everyone who likes to laugh will be glad she was brave enough to tell this story on herself.David Sedaris author ofNakedJust Checkingis, in turn, mysterious, agonizing, and terribly funny. Emily Colas writes with such skill and honesty that I can't help but wish she suffers a relapse. It's selfish, I know, but I want more.Detroit NewsIntimate and revealing.BooklistThis anecdotal, first-person account of Colas' illness is highly readable and funny...One hopes that Colas will take up her pen again.Kirkus ReviewsA frank and funny first-person account of living with obsessive-compulsive disorder...With its unique patient's-eye view and perceptive honesty, a valuable contribution to the literature....Martha Manning author ofUndercurrentsandChasing GraceEveryone knows what it's like to worry. But for most people, it's not a twenty-four-hour occupation. Emily Colas draws readers into a world dominated by details -- a dangerous world in which kitchen utensils are instruments of deadly contamination, restaurant food is probably poisoned, and a tiny paper cut is potentially fatal. Through a series of vignettes she paints a compelling picture of a life dominated by compulsions and the worries that fuel them. If she'd left it there,Just Checkingwould be a valuable case study of a psychiatric illness. But Colas is a born storyteller, and a wickedly funny one at that.Just Checkingis as hilarious as it is harrowing -- a combination that makes it an engaging and ultimately powerful book.JavaA terribly funny, sad, and deeply human account...Honesty is the key here, and it's Colas' ironic self-awareness that makes for such a refreshing read.