Written with courage and precision—the anatomy of a potentially incapacitating mental illness laid bare.
A Tennessee woman confronts her obsessive compulsive disorder in this debut memoir.
Nicely was 4 years old when she had her accident. She was standing on the sidewalk outside a church when she and her mother were struck by an automobile. An article in the Kingsport Courier, the local newspaper, reported that her mother was in fair condition. But Nicely, whose condition was described as poor, suffered two broken legs and a damaged pelvis. Part of her treatment involved being placed in a body cast up to her armpits. The doctors predicted that she would walk again, although one leg might be shorter than the other. Yet the trauma of the accident—being separated from her mother for two months, sawn out of the cast, and seeing other sick children—would take its toll. She came to the debilitating conclusion that the world was a dangerous place. Dreams about her parents being beheaded became common. In time, she began secretly praying to keep her loved ones safe, with the fear that if she made a mistake, something terrible would happen. Her OCD became amplified as she grew older, as did her nightmares. She writes about waking up “slamming my fist against the headboard.” She also obsessed about her cat, Fred, becoming trapped in the refrigerator, and her mind punished her by encouraging her to imagine his death. This is the brave story of a woman turning to face her OCD, accept it, but question the validity of its voice. OCD sufferers should immediately identify with Nicely’s fraught inner monologue: “We stepped on the price tags! That was irresponsible! Someone is going to slip and fall and crack their head open and die because of us!” Yet the instant she recognized her OCD as a “drama queen” and contradicted it is deeply empowering: “Someone may slip and fall and die, and it may or may not be all our fault. But I want to be anxious and uncertain because I want to beat you, OCD.” In her detailed book, the author acknowledges that her OCD will never leave her. But the harrowing, ultimately hope-giving story of her “work in progress” may be of significant encouragement to those living with OCD and other anxiety disorders.
Written with courage and precision—the anatomy of a potentially incapacitating mental illness laid bare.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73217-700-0
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Nicely Done
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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