Head Case : My Brain and Other Wonders

A young woman diagnosed with a brain abnormality which impairs her ability to judge time and space discusses her struggles to overcome her disability and lead an independent life.

""Now You See Me" is a memoir of a disability. It begins with the author's discovery that her lifelong disorientation, and inability to grasp numbers and time is caused by a large hole in her brain, and then follows her sometimes stumbling efforts to manage her life in spite of it. The book 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"As a writer, she is fearless, willing to take enormous risks, to adapt forms and structures to her own creative ends. She also understands the basic essence of memoir--to reveal, often to the point of personal discomfort, all of one's flaws and potential weaknesses, and in doing so, to turn them into strengths." --David L. Ulin

""Head Case" is a memoir of a disability. It begins with the author's discovery that her lifelong disorientation, and inability to grasp numbers and time is caused by a large hole in her brain, and then follows her sometimes stumbling efforts to manage her life in spite of it. The book 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

""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"

"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)""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"""

"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."--Andre Aciman, author of "Call Me by Your Name " "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)""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"""