PositiveThe Washington Post... a raw and exhaustively reported exploration of her suffering, the kind of reportage engaged in by Michael Pollan as he looked at his diet and his brain, or Ross Douthat when coping with his chronic Lyme disease; the kind when a journalist lands on a rich subject because he or she happens to be living it ... she reprises that kind of determined, deep-dive reporting, this time seeking the same healing for her shattered self ... She writes eloquently of her misery ... This is one of the joys of reading a gifted science journalist: You learn so much stuff without having to study it yourself. At the same time, she enlists a dizzying, and sometimes distracting, number of people—not just all those researchers but historical figures: William James! Simone Weil!—in her attempt to understand why she was so miserable and what it would take to feel better ... Impressive mastery of the material, to be sure, but sometimes the density feels as if we are racing past one billboard after another, each offering respite at the elusive next rest stop.
