Devil in the Details: part deux

This week I finished “Devil in the Details” by Jennifer Traig. [See previous post for information on the book.] In my opinion, I thought the book itself was a bit bland and light on facts; I had believed the book would be more centered on Traig’s scrupulosity, but instead it focused mainly on her interfaith family and humorous situations of her abnormal life. The last half of the book highlighted Traig’s extreme kosher diet, which as she advanced through high school, morphed into bizarre forms of anorexia. Traig went through numerous ‘diet phases’ including; only eating ‘hermetically sealed processed-cheese singles and a low calorie bread whose chief ingredient was wood pulp.’ [Page 178], only consuming carrots and cantaloupe; which turned Traig an unsightly shade of orange, and of course, the insanely kosher meals.
“It was just a brief trip back East to help move her elderly aunts, but it couldn’t have come at a better time. I could take my eating disorder in the exciting new direction I’d been contemplating for a while.” [Page 178] This quote is quite disturbing, showing that her eating disorder wasn’t just a brief idea, but thoroughly contemplated and researched.
Also as Traig’s collegiate life approached, our antagonist became obsessed with improving her resume. Traig joined as many clubs as her well packed schedule could fit: French club, student council, literary club, honor society, service club and the school’s theater program. Coming from a middle class town and never being athletically talented, Traig panicked, believing no quality college would ever want her; the possibly insane Jewish girl.

Devil in the Details

After finishing “Please Don’t Kill The Freshman” I began a new book: “Devil in The Details” by Jenny Traig. This new book is also an autobiography; Traig, as a child, had scrupulosity. Scrupulosity is a relatively unspecified form of OCD, it is basically a “religious” form of the disorder, feeling you have to pray/perform countless rituals/ purify/ worship multiple times per day. It was particularly hard for Traig because of her interfaith family; Catholic mother, Jewish father and atheist sister.
Traig describes hundreds of tasks her brain forced her to complete; obsessively kosher meals, washing her hands, nothing on the Shabbat, studying the bible and frequent prayers. The disorder began to affect her life in the late seventies, and her parents did not understand that Traig was not making up her strange habits for fun.
Only halfway through the book, I recently came across Traig’s middle school years; when she faced extreme “kosher anorexia”. Traig was not an obese child, merely a bit plump, but “Jewish lessons” with the rabbi introduced Traig to a new form of her religion to preoccupy herself with: keeping kosher. Traig quickly “purified” her home of all un-kosher or other risky items. She soon lost an unsafe amount of weight, and her parents quit the Jewish lessons, forcing Traig to eat regularly.
“I was fixing myself a snack of cream cheese with ranch dressing when my mother asked if I’d prefer tortellini or rotelle for dinner. ‘Oh neither,’ I answered casually. ‘I’ve gone low carb.’ My mother went quiet for a minute […] Had her thoughts been captioned, I imagine they would have read like this ‘I survived your anorexia. I acquiesced when you decided to keep kosher. […] But this is a bridge too far. Pasta is all I have left. You will eat it, and you will like it” (pg 96) I enjoy this quote because it displays both motherly “love” and ignorance of the mental condition; and it essentially catches the whole book’s feeling.

Please Don't Kill The Freshman

The book I am beginning to read is “Please Don’t Kill the Freshmen,” by Zoe Trope. It’s a very interesting book, the most obvious reason being the fact that Trope writes in, as best as I can describe, poetic fragments. “’The amendment that protects…’ Sharp voice falling on muffled ears. I got a perfect score, plus five extra credit points. Pardon me for not seeing the point of listening. I could be doing something constructive or even listening, but I choose not to.” [Page 4] The book itself is a memoir about a girl (who is not mentioned by name, but we know her to be Zoe Trope) who is simply trying to find her way in the world. Most of the passages are extremely easy for any high school student to relate to; overbearing parents, boring classes, new people, or even just ordinary things looked at curiously, yet the novel retains its poetic feeling throughout the book.
Zoe often encounters ‘people you wouldn’t look at twice’ or her new friends; teenagers filled with piercings and tattoos, unemployed high school drop outs, gay or lesbian kids. “I know far too many angry twenty somethings who got burnt out in high school. Hanging out with these witty sarcastic vile twenty-somethings really helps me. I like them. My parents, however, do not. To them I am pleading with the raincoat men to come and rape me. I am trying not to drown. I am trying to bloom. Please don’t kill the flowers.” [Page 11] Zoe does not understand what she is doing with her life, and escapes the pressure by burying herself in her writing and her friends. She is merely watching life around her, trying to fit her piece of life into the big high school puzzle.

hello world

this is my blog.