Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders, by Cole Cohen
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Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders, by Cole Cohen
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A spirited, wry, and utterly original memoir about one woman's struggle to make her way and set up a life after doctors discover a hole the size of a lemon in her brain.
The summer before she was set to head out-of-state to pursue her MFA, twenty-six-year-old Cole Cohen submitted herself to a battery of tests. For as long as she could remember, she'd struggled with a series of learning disabilities that made it nearly impossible to judge time and space standing at a cross walk, she couldn't tell you if an oncoming car would arrive in ten seconds or thirty; if you asked her to let you know when ten minutes had passed, she might notify you in a minute or an hour. These symptoms had always kept her from getting a driver's license, which she wanted to have for grad school. Instead of leaving the doctor's office with permission to drive, she left with a shocking diagnosis doctors had found a large hole in her brain responsible for her life-long struggles. Because there aren't established tools to rely on in the wake of this unprecedented and mysterious diagnosis, Cole and her doctors and family create them, and discover firsthand how best to navigate the unique world that Cole lives in. Told without an ounce of self-pity and plenty of charm and wit, "Head Case" is ultimately a story of triumph, as we watch this passionate, loveable, and unsinkable young woman chart a path for herself."
Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders, by Cole Cohen - Amazon Sales Rank: #750253 in Books
- Brand: Cohen, Cole
- Published on: 2015-05-19
- Released on: 2015-05-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.45" h x .87" w x 5.76" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 240 pages
Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders, by Cole Cohen From School Library Journal All of her life, Cole Cohen has struggled with being different. Educators and doctors failed to categorize her particular type of learning disabilities, marked by difficulties with time, space, and numbers. She got lost in a supermarket just as easily as en route to a familiar destination. Driving was an impossibility, as was taking public transportation without planning and practice. Cohen relates the particulars of her highly unusual eventual diagnosis in this fascinating memoir. An MRI when she was 26 finally revealed that she had a large hole in her brain, described by the neurologist as the size of a lemon. The void is located in Cohen's parietal lobe, which affects spatial sense, navigation, and mathematical ability. Ultimately, her diagnosis is a relief, giving her essential information about who she is. Why couldn't she seem to keep even the most basic of jobs? Why was money such a mystery? Luckily, she has parents who serve as a strong support system, allowing her to have a relatively independent life. Readers can't help but marvel at how adept Cohen is with written language and how evocatively she tells her story with pathos and wit. She discusses making her way in the world, from difficulties with various college roommates to a tempestuous relationship with the brother of a friend. VERDICT Fans of well-written memoirs, especially those that focus on overcoming affliction, will be fascinated by Cohen's honest, emotional story.—Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD
Review
“Brave, honest, and totally compelling.” ―People
“Thoughtful...[Cohen's] honesty is part of what makes Head Case so readable...Cohen is also pretty funny...Because she pairs her droll take alongside her scrutiny, her story reads not as one about a neurology patient but about a young woman, a human being, trying to find her way through the misshapen labyrinth of her brain but also through the common milestones we all share.” ―Miami Herald
“Sad and funny, chipper and melancholy, thought-provoking and gasp-inducing.” ―Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Astonishing.” ―New York Post
“Darkly funny.” ―NPR Weekend Edition
“[Cohen has] a wry sense of humor.” ―Washington Post
“Rich with yearning and ache, conveying a scrunched sense of claustrophobia and imagery of cinematic quality. . .The author also delivers flashes of humor to add levity to the proceedings. A beautifully wrenching memoir as piercing as smelling salts.” ―Kirkus (starred review)
“A lemon-size hole in her brain prevents Cohen from accurately judging time and space but not from writing beautifully. She even maintains a sense of humor about it all...Though her specific condition is extremely rare, it's very easy to identify with her and to cheer for her.” ―Booklist
“Cole Cohen's Head Case is a moving exploration of how we try to make ourselves make sense--to ourselves, to the world--by finding stories that will fit. It's full of hard-won insight, candor and tenderness, delightful wit and surprising grace.” ―Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams
“Head Case is hilarious, moving, thought-provoking: it will change the way you think about what it means to move through the world, no matter the shape of your own human brain. Cole Cohen's brain is unusual, and her voice is indelible: this is a wonderful book by a wonderful writer. I can't wait to see what she writes next.” ―Elizabeth McCracken
“Terrifically readable, while still being piercing and honest about different kinds of struggle, some familiar, some utterly her own. Besides that, Cole Cohen's also really funny. And unafraid of being bleak. And funny/bleak. I so enjoyed being carried along by Cohen's voice.” ―Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
“This is an eloquent, moving, witty, and unsparingly clear-eyed memoir of a mind that is unlike any other and that, despite a lifetime of tests, simply refuses to cower before facts of life most of us wouldn't deem worthy of a second thought. This is not only a great book; it's an achievement.” ―André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
“Head Case is funny, touching, acerbic, and emotional; it vividly evokes the world as she experiences it and leaves you feeling you have met an exceptional, tough, indomitable character. ” ―Susan Orlean
“I'm delighted and inspired by Cole Cohen's Head Case, an account of herself that shines throughout with her particular brand of perseverance, humor, hard-won clarity and wisdom.” ―Maggie Nelson, author of The Art of Cruelty
“Cole Cohen writes with poignant clarity about her life of continual disorientation--the result of a hole in her parietal lobe. I laud her persistence, her humor, her gracious prose, and most of all, her honesty - and, as the mother of a child likewise afflicted with an "invisible disability," I am grateful for this revelatory memoir. Cohen's challenges are as universal as their cause is unique, and Head Case, so raw and artful both, is an important book. Bravo!” ―Robin Black, author of If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
“Cole Cohen writes with clarity, humor and honesty about her own unique brain, but Head Case is also about the very human journey of learning to navigate the big world from inside one's one mind. This is a fascinating and brave memoir.” ―Ramona Ausubel, author of No One is Here Except All of Us and A Guide to Being Born
About the Author Cole Cohen graduated from the California Institute of the Arts MFA program in Writing and Critical Studies in 2009. She was a finalist for the Bakeless Prize and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs prize in Nonfiction and she has been a Yaddo Fellow. She currently lives in Santa Barbara, California where she works as the Events and Program Coordinator for UC Santa Barbara's Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. An interesting case study but the narrative is rather fractured. By The Barefoot Reviewer I received this book free for review from the author or publisher in exchange for an honest review. Despite the coolness of receiving a free book, I’m absolutely candid about it below because I believe authors and readers will benefit most from honest reviews rather than vacuous 5-star reviews.The nutshell view on this is that it's the memoir of a woman who finds out one day that she has a hole in her brain the size of a lemon. From that point of introduction, the story spirals forwards and backwards in time describing her struggles before her diagnosis and her coping mechanisms afterwards. All in all it is an exceptionally detailed but rather disconnected tale.To the positive side, the author is completely honest with us about her life. She's candid and leaves no stone unturned from her sex life to just getting around town. The level of insight she grants us is extreme and she invites us into her life without apparent hesitation. Because of this, her treatise is a wonderful guide for anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation at least to the extent of the emotional and social aspects of such a diagnosis.To the negative, the book as a narrative fails in many spots. The storyline is at times disjointed and fails to flow in anything approaching a consistent manner. The author seems to jump around in her story as much as she does geographically during this period. It is disconcerting and at times completely impossible to follow.In summary, this is an intimate portrait painted with a confused brush. The author lets us into her life but once we get there the whole thing is a mass of carnival mirrors and foggy recollection. I understand the spirit of what the author is trying to say but her thesis is lost in a mass of proverbial spaghetti.PS: I hope my review was helpful. If it was not, then please let me know what I left out that you’d want to know. I always aim to improve.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. A unusual coming of age story By julesinrose Head Case is, in essence, a coming of age story more than anything else. I give it four stars, and feel bad for not just giving it five and calling it a day. The first 96 pages of this book are wonderful. Ms. Cohen's recounting of her late-in-life diagnosis is tremendously compelling, as is her recounting the endless testing she endured for what were simply considered learning disabilities before the final neurological diagnosis. Those 96 pages tell her story very well.Yet, while Ms. Cohen's particular diagnosis is most unusual, the fact that the exact nature and origins of her neurological problems were not diagnosed until so late in life is not particularly unusual. And in spite of the deft humor that the author employs, the fact that this is true is a problem, one that is glossed over by her good nature and humor (at least in the telling). Schools and doctors make assumptions about learning disabilities and emotional problems. In spite of the obstacles that Ms. Cohen has faced, she is lucky indeed that she had such very good support, especially that of her parents.But, as I said, this is essentially a coming-of-age tale. On page 96, Ms. Cohen's story turns to Charlie, her then love, and the book becomes a tale of a young woman making her way in the adult world; moving away from home, room mates, lovers, jobs and school. In these waters, I found the book faltered, or at least my attention did. And while my attention wandered, I felt more than a little sad that the book did not live up the promise of its first half. Ms. Cohen writes so well on one's self perception before and after diagnosis and raises some interesting questions about our expectations of self and how that changes with how our disabilities are framed. This could have been a great book about coming to terms with disability, but fell short of that mark.Still, highly recommended. If nothing else, it's a very good read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. a well-written account of the struggles of an intelligent young woman to deal with a set of disabilities ... By Ms Winston I read this book in less than two days, as I found it quite fascinating: a well-written account of the struggles of an intelligent young woman to deal with a set of disabilities that have set her apart from her peers, and some family members , since childhood. Some of Cole's struggles I found easy to relate to, including the long time it took me to learn to tie my shoelaces and problems with any math beyond arithmetic. But imagine never being able to easily identify left from right, to know the names of the months but not their order, not being able to remember how your supermarket is laid out and getting lost every time. These are just a few among the many issues which Cole relates to us with much humor and understanding of how her disabilities distance her from people who are capable of doing most of her challenges automatically....because they do not have a hole the size of a lemon in their brain.A couple of reviewers indicated they could not relate to Cole or her book because of what they perceived as a generational divide. Although I am in my 60's, which makes me decades older than the author, I did not feel that divide. I found her story very easy to relate to, perhaps because of my own struggles ...the shoelace thing, and in my case never learning to ride a bike. But it was not just these things that made the book of such interest to me, but rather the total lack of self pity, the self awareness that grew as she got older, and her ultimate determination not to let her issues keep her from achieving success. The book is written in a conversational tone, divided into chapters by date, and sections prefaced with pertinent quotes from "Alice in Wonderland." Yes, her friends are strange in many ways, but we all have at least one strange friend, or we are that strange friend to someone else, so I don't think that is a drawback at all to appreciating this candid and touching memoir.,
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