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| Well Enough Alone | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 95576
Category: Book
Author: Jennifer Traig
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Studio: Riverhead Hardcover
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
Label: Riverhead Hardcover
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 1594489912
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.85250092
EAN: 9781594489914
ASIN: 1594489912
Publication Date: July 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A hilarious first-person account of life as a hypochondriac, as well as a look at the condition?s history and broader cultural context, from the critically acclaimed author of Devil in the Details.
The good news is Jennifer Traig does not have lupus, multiple sclerosis, Huntington?s disease, Crohn?s disease, or muscular dystrophy. She discovers that she does not have SUDS, the mysterious disorder that claims healthy young Asian men in their sleep, nor does she have Foreign Accent Syndrome, the bizarre but real neurological condition that transforms native West Virginians into Eliza Doolittle overnight. What she does have is hypochondria.
Jenny Traig?s inquiry into her ailment is not only an uproariously funny account but also a literary tour of hypochondria, past and present: the implied hypochondria of the Talmud, the flatulence-obsessed eighteenth century, and the malady?s current unfortunate lack of a celebrity spokesperson. At the same time, Traig provides an intimate look at the complement of minor conditions that have concealed her essential health and driven her persistent self-diagnosis: the eczema, the shaky hands, and, worst of all, the bad hair. To her surprise, she ends her journey more knowledgeable than she was when she started out, a little less neurotic, and?one might say?healthier.
Well Enough Alone is the definitive book on being worried well, in all of its gruesome and hysterical detail, from one of our funniest and most distinctive literary voices.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Well Enough Alone is funny and surprisingly sweet September 12, 2008
Jennifer Traig was pretty sure she had cancer. Also, lupus, tuberculosis and kidney failure. And herpes, rickets and Lyme disease. Plus, she might have had a heart attack somewhere along the way. As a hypochondriac, Traig is constantly convincing herself that she has been stricken with all kinds of illnesses; the symptoms are real, but the results are always negative. Or, almost always. She does have obsessive compulsive disorder and irritable bowel syndrome. She suffered from an actual eating disorder and, she will tell you, has frizzy hair.
While hypochondriacs exist only as the butt of bad jokes for most of us, Traig's latest memoir, WELL ENOUGH ALONE, explores the disorder in a personal and compelling way. Traig is often the butt of her own jokes, but this book makes it clear that hypochondria is no laughing matter.
Traig explains that hypochondria doesn't generally manifest until adulthood, yet she had signs of it as a child. In second grade she was worried about brain aneurysms, not to mention contaminated school lunches and injury from risky playground equipment. Her family seemed to be full of hypochondriacs, some of them genuinely sick, and her parents' medical professions also gave her fuel for the fire. She soon figured out that doctors worked hard and fussed over the sick, who got to rest and be pampered. Being sick, she reasoned, was the better deal. As she got older, the worry turned into real hypochondria, and she often found herself in the doctor's office with lists of pains and symptoms, rashes and spots.
Her teenage years were consumed with OCD and her eating disorder, and this seemed to keep the hypochondria at bay. But it resurfaced in college, and she began to self-medicate. She also started working in medical offices that, instead of worsening her hypochondria, actually soothed it; she found that having some control in a medical environment, even if it was just organizing patient files, helped her feel more in control over her symptoms. Still, her college years (and they are many, as she earned a PhD in literature) were ones of poor nutrition, alcohol and non-prescribed prescription drugs as well as angst at literary theories like deconstructionism. None of this sounds quite funny, but truly, Traig has a way of making it so.
Because the market has been flooded with horrible childhood memoirs, Traig's is refreshing. She doesn't lay blame (except with her genetic pool), and her tone is good-natured and self-mocking. She is a charming narrator, and her supporting cast --- her raucous and kind family and strung-out friends --- are interesting as well. From her unorthodox teaching methods as a grad student to her love of 1970s drug company marketing practices, Traig expands her story beyond her body yet is able to tie it all in to make a cohesive whole. She explains hypochondria clearly but without dull medical technical details, and is sensitive enough to make sure that the readers are laughing with her and not at hypochondriacs in general.
The book also includes some oddly hypnotic and beautifully graphic Victorian portraits of patients with conditions like Lupus Erythematosus, Molluscum Fibrosum and Rhinoscleroma. The appendix is full of gems such as "handy phrases for the hypochondriac traveler as translated somewhat unreliably on my computer," "diseases that would make nice names if they meant something else" and "hypochondria haiku."
WELL ENOUGH ALONE is funny and surprisingly sweet. A bit unfocused at times, it is a good book overall and gets better as it goes along.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Very funny and well-written September 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jennifer Traig's Well Enough Alone is a memoir centered around the author's health, a history of the real and perceived sicknesses and syndromes and symptoms that have shaped her life. Traig writes about a childhood soaked in free samples of prescription medications foisted on her father, a physician, about her discomfort with her body and its emanations, about her life as a hypochondriacal college and grad student. She discusses the social joys of food poisoning, the heartbreak of eczema. Her chapters mix memoir with medical information and the occasional health-related historical tidbit (e.g., Abraham Lincoln's final bowel movement is on display in a museum in Baltimore; George Washington's teeth were spring-loaded, so that he was compelled to clench his jaw at all times to keep his mouth shut). The result is a narrative that flows so smoothly you barely notice when it changes direction, from puberty to bat mitzvah to the Talmud to donkey urine, autopsies, the Eucharist, and breasts.
A book-length investigation of hypochondria might seem an unlikely vehicle for humor, but Traig's a very funny writer. There's a delightful turn of phrase or two on nearly every page of the book. Most of these I merely appreciated in silence, but a passage in Traig's chapter on the breast reduction surgery she underwent sent me into a sort of hysterical tittering that made the children come running from another room:
"When I heard about the 'pencil test'--an assessment of perkiness in which you place a pencil under your breast and pray the breast is not saggy enough to keep the pencil in place--I was eager to see what, besides pencils, my breasts could actually hold. I went from pencils to playing cards to CDs, stopping only after I successfully held up a VHS tape."
Traig's pendulous, VHS-holding breasts would eventually be much reduced. The size she selected, after some research, was a 36C:
"The end result would be a perky little 36C, a size I'd settled on after spending several weeks staring at women's chests. Friends, relatives, elderly nuns: no one was spared my penetrating gaze. Companions started to avoid going out with me. 'Oh, cut it out, will you?' my best friend pleaded. 'You're embarrassing every woman here. Well, except for the 34B with the graying brush cut, who's mouthing you her phone number.'"
Traig is an honest writer--unless she's exaggerating for effect--insofar as she paints herself as a very unlikable person at times. She is immature and abrasive; she drinks too much (or did) and takes (or took) drugs and doesn't practice good dental hygiene; she was highly irresponsible as a teacher when in graduate school. On the other hand, Traig is self-aware and self-condemning, chastising herself for this behavior, which one rather admires. Whatever the childishness of her first several decades, Traig seems well past it now.
But while I'm not entirely sure I like the author's persona, the quality of her writing is not in question. Well Enough Alone is a fascinating and funny book.
-- Debra Hamel
Well Enough Alone August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Funny,dry,sharp without being in any way sad. I laughed the hypochondria out of my body. I don't know why another review suggested that it was negative for Jennifer to "use an excuse" to talk about herself, isn't that what autobiographical material is all about? I would read anything this author wrote about herself. She's funnier than most authors and is an excellent writer as well. Prepare to laugh and laugh again, this book is worth the read!
Didn't Want to Leave Well Enough Alone August 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had so much fun reading Jennifer Traig's memoir, I was sorry when it ended. Jennifer has such an exquisite, dry wit you'll find yourself laughing out loud at all of her imagined health crises, perhaps recognizing a bit of yourself in each one. (And I thought I was the only one thinking about Lupus while my classmates were resting their heads during nap time!) Let's hope that when Jennifer does actually go, it's of old age.
Wendy Aron, author of Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
 Just didn't grab me August 5, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
About: A biography of Traig's experiences with hypochondria, including not so imaginary experiences with eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and breast-reduction surgery.
Pros: Humorous, not poorly written.
Cons: Chapter on history of hypochondria seems out of place. Sources not cited. I could not get into this book at all. It seems like Traig just used hypochondria as an excuse to talk about herself.
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