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    Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders
    Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders
    Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders
    Audiobook6 hours

    Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders

    Written by Cole Cohen

    Narrated by Julia Whelan

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The summer before she was set to head out-of-state to pursue her MFA, twenty-six-year-old Cole Cohen submitted herself to a battery of tests. For as long as she could remember, she'd struggled with a series of learning disabilities that made it nearly impossible to judge time and space-standing at a cross walk, she couldn't tell you if an oncoming car would arrive in ten seconds or thirty; if you asked her to let you know when ten minutes had passed, she might notify you in a minute or an hour.

    These symptoms had always kept her from getting a driver's license, which she wanted to have for grad school. Instead of leaving the doctor's office with permission to drive, she left with a shocking diagnosis-doctors had found a large hole in her brain responsible for her life-long struggles. Because there aren't established tools to rely on in the wake of this unprecedented and mysterious diagnosis, Cole and her doctors and family create them, and discover firsthand how best to navigate the unique world that Cole lives in. Told without an ounce of self-pity and plenty of charm and wit, Head Case is ultimately a story of triumph, as we watch this passionate, loveable, and unsinkable young woman chart a path for herself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 19, 2015
    ISBN9781494580964
    Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders
    Author

    Cole Cohen

    Cole Cohen graduated from the California Institute of the Arts MFA program in Writing and Critical Studies in 2009. She was a finalist for the Bakeless Prize and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs prize in Nonfiction and she has been a Yaddo Fellow. She currently lives in Santa Barbara, California where she works as the Events and Program Coordinator for UC Santa Barbara's Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

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    Reviews for Head Case

    3.5/5

    56 ratings20 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Head Case is a loopy little memoir by a young woman whose main claim to fame is that she has a hole the size of a lemon in her brain. Doctors tell her that someone who has that kind of damage from a stroke, would be pretty much incapacitated. But she’s a smart lady with a college degree. The first part of the book explains what Cole’s life was pre-diagnosis. Until the MRI revealed the state of her brain, at age 26, she was shuffled hither and yon to doctors and educators who were trying to figure out (unsuccessfully) a way to teach her math, or to tie her shoes, or to drive a car, or to navigate the world without endangering herself or getting totally lost. After the diagnosis, she has a reason for her disabilities, but not a cure or a path forward. Still, it allows her to obtain Social Security benefits that provide a financial cushion for someone who can’t handle her own finances (her mom does it for her). Her sisters stop being annoyed with her for hogging all the attention – after all, she has a hole in her brain and isn’t the malingerer they always thought she was.Unfortunately, other than the hole in her brain, she and her life are pretty boring and the second half of the book dragged. Although the reason for her difficulties is apparent, her problems are pretty mundane: dead-end jobs from which she’s fired; roommate troubles; romantic entanglements that go nowhere; the pursuit of teaching assistantships. And, although the book blurb says the memoir is funny, I didn’t see that at all. I hope this book is a big success – the author has all her hopes wrapped up in writing career and she seems like a nice person. But Head Case is not a book I would recommend. Review based on publisher-provided bound galley.
    • 3/5
      This is a tough book to review. On the one hand, it's a fascinating memoir of someone with a very unique neurological condition (having a large hole in the parietal lobe of the brain), yet I found the author a bit disconnected, in a way. She was difficult to engage with, in that I felt as though I was witnessing an awkward movie with jumps in time and place as opposed to a story with a cohesive whole. Nevertheless, it was interesting work of nonfiction, and as Cohen herself says, "Everyone has a labyrinthine brain with a Minotaur at the center: a memory, an illness, a heartache, a deep frustration." Perhaps this serves as the basis of a reader-author connection.
    • 3/5
      A fascinating memoir by a girl, whose brain isn't all there. Thought to have a myriad of disorders (ADD, anxiety, etc), it isn't until Cole is in her twenties that she gets tested and is told she is seriously neurologically impaired and has a hole in her brain the size of a lemon). Because of this Cole can't tell the difference between left and right, can't drive, can't follow directions, tell home much time has paced, and dozens of other things that make living independently very very hard. This memoir talks about the struggle of coming to terms with her diagnosis and trying to find new ways to complete some of the most basic of tasks with dignity and resolve. Inspiring and intriguing. This was a fascinating read.
    • 4/5
      I love memoirs and working in health care, I am always interested in medical stories so this was a good read for me. The author was diagnosed as an adult as having a lemon sized hole in her brain. After a lifetime of what were perceived as learning disabilities and various other odd symptoms this news was somewhat of a relief - finally an explanation. The difficult part however, was the complete knowledge that nothing can be done to help. It was fascinating reading to understand the many physical,mental, and emotional limitations this put on the author. It was difficult for her to get through the day everyday and maintain relationships. Overall I thought this was a good read. The latter part of the book was not quite as engaging for me, but this is still a quick and thought provoking read about the wonders of the brain and body's ability to compensate.
    • 4/5
      Case Cohen was born with a hole the size of a lemon in her brain. More amazingly no one knew it for most of her life. Sure they knew something was wrong. An otherwise bright girl shouldn't get lost in a grocery store and should be able to tie her shoes. Through batteries of tests and misdiagnosis no one ever thought to get an MRI of her brain.The story more or less starts with the correct diagnosis (not that there is a treatment) and focuses on her attempt to navigate the world where she literally can't tell left from right. It's fascinating.BUT... the whole story isn't told. Brief throw away sentences allude to suicide attempts and time spent in psych wards. I felt she just wasn't able to be completely candid about the real impact of her diability.
    • 3/5
      I received this book free for review from the author or publisher in exchange for an honest review. Despite the coolness of receiving a free book, I’m absolutely candid about it below because I believe authors and readers will benefit most from honest reviews rather than vacuous 5-star reviews.The nutshell view on this is that it's the memoir of a woman who finds out one day that she has a hole in her brain the size of a lemon. From that point of introduction, the story spirals forwards and backwards in time describing her struggles before her diagnosis and her coping mechanisms afterwards. All in all it is an exceptionally detailed but rather disconnected tale.To the positive side, the author is completely honest with us about her life. She's candid and leaves no stone unturned from her sex life to just getting around town. The level of insight she grants us is extreme and she invites us into her life without apparent hesitation. Because of this, her treatise is a wonderful guide for anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation at least to the extent of the emotional and social aspects of such a diagnosis.To the negative, the book as a narrative fails in many spots. The storyline is at times disjointed and fails to flow in anything approaching a consistent manner. The author seems to jump around in her story as much as she does geographically during this period. It is disconcerting and at times completely impossible to follow.In summary, this is an intimate portrait painted with a confused brush. The author lets us into her life but once we get there the whole thing is a mass of carnival mirrors and foggy recollection. I understand the spirit of what the author is trying to say but her thesis is lost in a mass of proverbial spaghetti.PS: I hope my review was helpful. If it was not, then please let me know what I left out that you’d want to know. I always aim to improve.
    • 4/5
      The memoir Head Case by Cole Cohen chronicles a woman's journey through the discovery of a large hole in her brain. This highly unusual discovery, made when Cole was 26, provided both answers to "why?" Cole had struggled with so many things in her and insight to how the brain functions and disfunctions. There is no cure to this brain malfunction, so Cole is forced to continue living her life with a large hole in her brain. This was an interesting story. I always find these medical memoirs interesting. There is so much crazy stuff that can happen to the human body. I can't believe that Cole lived 26 years before a doctor was able to diagnose the real problem. I also enjoyed the writing style. I've read a lot of these memoirs that end up being whiny or obnoxious, "woe is me" types of stories. And I didn't feel that way about this one. Cohen writes with a fresh and funny voice, and it felt real, honest and not annoying.I felt that perhaps there wasn't quite enough content to fill up this whole book, as it felt a bit repetitious and drawn out at times. But it's an interesting story about an interesting condition told in an interesting voice. Worth a read!
    • 4/5
      “Head Case” is the memoir of a young woman who had difficulties from birth, but no doctor could diagnose her. Was her problem psychological or neurological? Could medications help her? Would this or that new therapist be able to get her to talk and discover a buried problem? Why did she have no ability with math, little perception of things on one side of her, trouble tying her shoes, and nearly zero ability to find her way around, even in a city she’d lived in a long time? Why was she angry all the time? Her intellect is intact- in fact, she’s well above average. What’s going on? It’s not until Cohen is twenty-six that she takes MRI and PET tests and the source of her problem is found- a large hole in her brain, a good part of the parietal lobe missing. While this explains her spatial problems, there is, sadly, no treatment for a missing part of the brain. She is forced to go on as she had all her life: inventing ways to work around the problem. It’s a very interesting medical/psychological memoir. Her problem is not one that anyone else has; people who get this area of the brain damaged later in life from accident or stroke do not function like Cohen does because her brain was able to compensate in large part when she was a baby. The work-arounds she comes up with to survive and thrive are the best part of the book. What’s less interesting is her long term ex-boyfriend – a lot of time is spent on their relationship- but he’s part of her full story. One thing I would have liked to know is whether her constant anger is because of the hole in her brain or a result of the frustrations she faces every day, and whether it’s gotten any better after she got her diagnosis.
    • 4/5
      Cole Cohen has an interesting story to tell. She was diagnosed with learning disabilities and various psychological issues long before it was discovered that she has a hole in her head, a pretty significant one the size of a lemon.I can certainly understand her frustration at the slow diagnosis, and with her challenges in doing things others take for granted. I admire that she perseveres in trying to live as normal a life as possible. And it is harder to have these challenges when you look perfectly normal, when there is not obviously something “wrong” with you, so people do not understand why you may behave and perceive differently than they do.Despite that, the story did get just a little repetitious and one-note with mostly pedestrian but capable writing. That does not mean it was not worth reading. I learned things I never knew before, and I enjoyed some of the author's insights. I did get frustrated that she couldn't see a bad relationship for what it was, something that I don't think was related to the hole in her brain, but perhaps it was – who knows?Some quotes I liked:“By my own logic, if I can start to wrap my head around the concept that I am healed and I am broken, that there is room in me to be both, then maybe I don't have to give up being broken in order to be healed.”“I am frightened by this new person I have always been.”And while most of us do not have the challenges that the author faces, I do like:“Your body will inevitably fail you – if not now, then later. We are all lurching meat marionettes, Frankenstein monsters stitched together from stronger parts and weaker parts. Try to think of this as a happy thing, a joyful coltish clumsiness born of enthusiasm to be in the world.This is an interesting memoir from a perspective few, if any, others would be able to provide, and I appreciated it for that.I was given an advance copy of this book for review. The quotes may have changed in the published edition.
    • 4/5
      I suspect this a book that wll end up on bestsellers lists -Cole is an interesting character- wth a voice that is both honest, snarky, and doesn't get whiney. She is a survivor - and I really can't believe that she is doing so well - I mean, I have similiar problems (but on a much smaller scale) - so I totally get it, kind of.The writing is tight - I suspet like in most memoirs, some names are changed and events altered - but it tells a cohesive story. The author is talented. Highly recommended, first as a book of a person with a disability, but also as a coming of age story as a person who doesn't quite fit it in.
    • 4/5
      We all have things we do well and things we don't do as well. I am an English and Humanities girl while my sister is a Math and Science girl. This is just the way we are, the way our brains work. When I read about Cole Cohen's inability to tell her right from her left, the way she's spent her whole life getting lost or disoriented, that she has no sense of time, and that she gets math problems wrong in new and unique ways each time she attempts them, among other things, I realized I was reading about a kindred spirit. My own issues with these difficulties are of a much smaller magnitude than hers though, as her memoir, Head Case, about the discovery that she has a large hole in her brain where her parietal lobe should be makes clear. Mine are clearly just quirks, sometimes annoying quirks for sure, but hers is a documented case of complete absence. All her life Cole Cohen has had trouble with things that other people learn with ease. As a child, her spatial and temporal difficulties were chalked up to a changing list of learning disabilities. But none of these diagnoses were the right one as she discovers when she is on the verge of leaving for graduate school. In an effort to get to the bottom of why she is completely incapable of learning to drive or to handle her own finances, in addition to the other problems she's had to fight to overcome or mitigate with coping strategies for her entire life, Cole submits to many tests but no one is more shocked when an MRI shows that she has a hole the size of a lemon in her brain. If this had been the result of a stroke or an accident, it would likely have rendered her incapacitated, but because it seems to have happened organically, she is spared the otherwise likely devastation, a strange ray of light in an otherwise baffling situation. The first half of the memoir recounts Cohen's difficulties and the long search through the medical community for answers, the many misdiagnoses and finally the completely astounding correct diagnosis. The second half of this slight book focuses on the way she continues to be impacted, how she feels about all of it, and how she lives her life with the knowledge of her disability. She recognizes the lifelong way in which her disability has driven her sometimes difficult relationship with her parents and sisters, knowing that an inordinate amount of attention has had to be paid to her over the years and will continue to be necessary to help her in those problem areas she'll likely never master. She discusses the series of jobs she has had and the reasons she has struggled to hold onto those jobs. And a large portion of this latter half of the book looks at the on and off romantic relationship Cohen had and how the reality of her situation played out in it as well. The memoir is very introspective but it meanders a bit. Cohen doesn't slip into self-pity about her condition although there is some wistfulness for the easy life she'll never lead. Her story is interesting for its uniqueness but perhaps because it is so unusual as to have no real documentation, it feels a bit repetitive by the end. The amazing thing turns out not to be the hole in Cohen's brain but that she has accomplished all that she has, not least of which is writing this generally readable book.
    • 3/5
      Cole Cohen is a "Head Case" alright. This is a very emotionally raw book - at times brilliant, at times steeped in a quagmire of self-pity. Since this book is so centered on self identity, it would be interesting to hear other sides of her story. I keep getting the feeling as a reader that I am missing information. With all her handicap issues, she at least has an education and developing skill for something she can do... write.
    • 4/5
      Ms. Cohen explores her changing feelings after she discovers that her ongoing struggles are not due to ADHD or some other ailment, but rather because there is a "hole" in her brain that has interfered with her brain's functioning. This isn't a memoir of how the author fixes her problems, but rather how she comes to terms with her limitations and tries to figure out accommodations that help her to live the life she wants to live. I wouldn't call this a "feel-good" memoir, but rather one in which the author is still grappling with her own sense of self.
    • 4/5
      Head Case: My Brain and Other Wonders by Cole Cohen reads like a a conversation. It is Cole telling her reader how it feels to be Cole. She is brutally honest, and sometimes sounds confused. This seems absolutely perfect to me, because who among us can describe themselves comepletely and without missing a beat here and there?Cole had been misdiagnosed for years, with her condition determined to be ADD/ADHD, which was the catch all diagnosis for every kid that scratched an itch, daydreamed or honestly couldn't stand having to sit under so much light. Meaningless, in my opinion. But since it was the catch all diagnosis of her youth, there she was. Finally, long after it should have happened, she finally had an MRI and saw a neurologist, who found that she had a space in her head, a gap in her brain. Her inability to do math, understand science or recognize space and distance were all caused by this thing. The placement of this gap was somewhat fortuitous, because if it had been elsewhere in her brain, the consequences could have been much more dire.The honesty and openness of this touching memoir, this story of how Cole lives, loves and copes every day is compelling and fascinating. I finished the book feeling as if I know her, and wishing that I did. She will manage, I am sure. Life isn't easy for any of us, but it is even harder for Cole. But by writing this, by allowing herself to be seen to be so vulnerable, takes a special kind of strength. You go Cole ! This was a really wonderful read. I hope to hear more from you and about you someday.
    • 4/5
      Nicole "Cole" Cohen has always had great difficulty with certain kinds of ordinary tasks, including crossing streets, doing arithmetic, and keeping track of the passage of time. Her parents took her to several doctors when she was a child, without much result. Finally, about to leave for grad school and desperate for some kind of help that would allow her to learn to drive a car, she visited a neurologist, got an MRI, and learned that she had been living her whole life with a hole in her brain the size of a lemon.In this memoir, Cole talks about the strangeness of living with this knowledge, the impact that her disabilities have had on her life, and the ways in which she attempts to cope with it. Inextricably intertwined with the story of her brain is the story of her life, including the more commonplace difficulties of being a young, artistic, rather emotionally messed-up young woman trying to achieve independent adulthood at a time when that's difficult even for people without holes in their brains.It's not a perfectly structured book, sometimes jumping around between time periods and topics in a way that's not particularly smooth. And some of the more personal content was really rather uncomfortable to read. Why, I don't know, since giving a window into someone's thoughts and feelings is part of the purpose of a memoir, but it was, anyway, at least for me. Maybe it's that it feels a bit like writing-as-therapy, rather than writing intended to reach an audience.But we can be very, very glad that the damage was not in a part of her brain that affects her writing ability, because her talent in that area is impressive. It may not be consistently on display throughout the whole book -- much of it is just perfectly readably written without being especially remarkable -- but there are many moments where she comes out with these perfect, vivid, delightful metaphors that are wonderfully insightful, or funny, or both.One thing I wasn't expecting with this memoir is how much of it I could relate to, in terms of Cole's difficulties. No sense of direction? Frustrating your elementary school teachers by writing letters backwards? Difficulty tracking rapidly moving objects? Being the only kid taking both remedial and gifted classes, on account of being bad with numbers but great with words? All eerily familiar to me. Oh my god, do I have a hole in my brain? Well, no. Probably not. My issues are mercifully mild compared to hers, and seem to have improved a lot more with age. But I think now I know which part of my brain to glare at for its suboptimal performance. And it certainly made me more sympathetic towards her problems, and more personally interested in her coping mechanisms (although she doesn't really go into the latter in the kind of detail one can pick up tips from).I will admit, though, that other aspects of her life were more difficult for me to relate to, especially her willingness to embrace the quackier end of the medical spectrum -- even if her frustration with the medical system is entirely understandable.Rating: This one is hard to rate, and probably made even more difficult by the fact that I have an unedited advance copy that's full of a lot of typos and things. Presumably these will be fixed by the time it hits bookstore shelves, but it did make parts of it a little hard to read. I think I'm going to call it 3.5/5, but with the note that it's littered throughout with writing that soars well above that average.
    • 4/5
      Good read. It is amazing how one copes with the inability to do things that most people take for granted - like crossing a street. Too bad that the author was not correctly diagnosed until she was an adult, especially since her parents took her to a number of physicians. The moral of the story is never give up- work with your abilities and you will succeed.
    • 4/5
      Cole has Learning and other disabilities that don't really fit into categories but to find out she has a hole in her brain turns out to be an answer she can work with. I was impressed with her supportive family and her abilities to write so well. This was a great, honest story of a puzzling disability.This was a Librarything early readers book.
    • 4/5
      I found it quite amazing that someone with a whole the size of a lemon in her brain could write as well as this. That said (as they say), although I realize this was an advance reader's edition and that one is not supposed to comment on typographic errors, I do hope a good proofreader will comb through the book because I've never seen as many, or ones so odd. Another quibble is Cohen's insistence on changing the names of "people, companies, and institutions . . . to protect their privacy." The famous Powell Bookstore in Portland certainly doesn't need its privacy protected, and even if it did, calling it Vowel hardly protects it!I agree with the other reviewers that I would have liked more medical detail and more description of exactly how she coped with her disability. All in all, quite an interesting read and I was happy to have received it.
    • 3/5
      When I told my husband a little about the premise of this memoir, he replied, "It's fiction, right?" When I corrected him, he of course made a bad joke about that being the reason he's forgetful too.The book is not terribly technical (which makes sense, since Cole is not great with math or science) but her writing is beautiful and I learned so much about her experience. Sometimes it felt a little thesis-y (which may be because she spent a lot of time talking about her academic experience/career) but it wasn't enough to be distracting. I would recommend.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. When she's detailing her struggle with medical community labels, her feelings about her brain and her disability, and the ways she navigates (or fails to navigate) "normal" life, Cohen is an eloquent and compelling writer. I particularly loved the way she handled describing her series of failed retail and office jobs, which was very funny. Her authorial voice was very enjoyable, and if I saw an essay by her in the future, I would happily read it.The parts of the memoir that dealt with personal relationships seemed comparatively underdeveloped. Other than the boyfriend, Charlie, and his sister, I couldn't tell you if any friend appeared more than once. I even caught myself wondering why she was devoting a chapter to explaining her relationships with her sisters, given that they had barely been mentioned in prior chapters (and immediately disappeared from the book after that one chapter). Charlie and her parents are better presented, but the personal stories and the "medical memoir" didn't seem wholly integrated with each other.So I enjoyed her voice and writing style, but the book as a whole felt like it split the difference between a narrative-style memoir and a collection of personal essays.