Dec 31 2008
“Just Checking” by Emily Colas
Just Checking: Scenes from the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive by Emily Colas was just as the subtitle says: A compilation of random scenes from the life of a person afflicted with the obsessive compulsive disorder. I was expecting more of a chronological story (I was born here, I started having problems with OCD at age 15, blah blah) and so the jumping from one time period to another, and from one story line to another, really threw me for a loop at first.
So here’s the scoop: There were parts of the book that were funny. I even laughed out loud in several places. But overall, it was a difficult book for me to read, and I hesitated to review it, because there’s a very good chance that other people will react very, very differently than I did to it (much like what happened with Tweak. Either you loved it or you really…well, didn’t.)
For me, Just Checking was frustrating to read, because her whole outlook on life was illogical. She had an obsession with blood tainting her food, people poisoning her by chopping needles into tiny pieces and putting them into her food, with germs of any kind, etc. (Side note: Not recommended dinner-time material. She mentions garbage and blood and needles one too many times to read this while eating.)
She comes up with the wildest plots you could ever imagine, and all of them ended with her getting some dread disease in a very bizarre way. The strange part was, she knew it was illogical. She freely admitted it. But she couldn’t control it. I understand that OCD is a disease, but my logical brain just spent the book saying, “Just calm down, lady!” and “Breathe, you’ll be fine!”
I guess the point to my story is that I definitely do not have a future as a therapist. I could just see myself looking the person in the eye and saying, “You’re just nuts. You know that, right?” But in the nicest way possible, because I hate ever making anyone mad. 
More than that, I think this book bothers me because it is so light on actual human emotions. Her husband leaves her for another woman; they get back together and then split up again multiple times; she cheats on him with an ex-boyfriend - lots of human drama here. Yet I don’t ever really feel any of it. A definite lack of character development (or plot development, for that matter).
So I guess I will recommend this book to people who find themselves in all of the following categories: Interested in psychology and OCD in particular; like having their stories thrown together in a random way; want a very quick and light read; and want a dash of humor in that reading. But seriously, if you have a low tolerance level for crazy people who do things that make absolutely no sense to 97% of the world’s population, you aren’t going to like this book. Sorry.
In the end, when I look at strictly how much I enjoyed this book, I have to give it 3 stars. For anyone who fits the above categories, I’d probably nudge that up to a decent 4.25.
Take it for what it’s worth. Anyone else out there read it? What did you think? Just wondering how far off base I am from everyone else…
Havs
