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A review by koan2
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
3.0
One of my oldest fears is suddenly and unexpectedly losing my mind. This doesn’t really bother me that much these days since I figure all of the good bits are already gone, and I can still show up to work on time. Susannah Cahalan did not get so lucky. Coming down with a strange list of symptoms, she quickly wound up in the hospital suffering from a wide range of neurological issues from hallucinations to catatonia. Doctors putted around a bunch of ideas until she was diagnosed with the very rare anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.
This is all in the blurb for the book though, as is her recovery and a lot of hyperbolic phrases about how brave she was. Brave or not, her situation was both terrible and fascinating. The core of the book centers on the bizarre symptoms Cahalan exhibited; she seems to have suffered from almost every symptom possible. This is interspersed with the investigation of her time in the hospital, as she has almost no memory of suffering from the autoimmune disease. There is also a rather clear-sighted (if unfortunately short) commentary on how her case and the cases of others simply cannot be dealt with properly by our horrendously malformed health care system.
All of this makes for a fine read. But it doesn’t quite make for a fine book. Cahalan, a reporter, originally penned her story for a newspaper article, which I don’t feel the need to read but I’m sure is good. Stretching all this out into a book however seemed to be a tall order. Things do get a bit repetitive at times and the narritve sometimes goes back and forth in time awkwardly. Cahalan is obviously best writing in short spurts; the average page count for a chapter is around 4.75 pages. Article length perhaps?
All told, the memoir is interesting and unique enough to be enjoyable, especially if you are into medical oddities. I wonder though if I could have gotten away with just reading the article.
This is all in the blurb for the book though, as is her recovery and a lot of hyperbolic phrases about how brave she was. Brave or not, her situation was both terrible and fascinating. The core of the book centers on the bizarre symptoms Cahalan exhibited; she seems to have suffered from almost every symptom possible. This is interspersed with the investigation of her time in the hospital, as she has almost no memory of suffering from the autoimmune disease. There is also a rather clear-sighted (if unfortunately short) commentary on how her case and the cases of others simply cannot be dealt with properly by our horrendously malformed health care system.
All of this makes for a fine read. But it doesn’t quite make for a fine book. Cahalan, a reporter, originally penned her story for a newspaper article, which I don’t feel the need to read but I’m sure is good. Stretching all this out into a book however seemed to be a tall order. Things do get a bit repetitive at times and the narritve sometimes goes back and forth in time awkwardly. Cahalan is obviously best writing in short spurts; the average page count for a chapter is around 4.75 pages. Article length perhaps?
All told, the memoir is interesting and unique enough to be enjoyable, especially if you are into medical oddities. I wonder though if I could have gotten away with just reading the article.