A Body Made of Glass oscillates between lengthy paragraphs of scholarship and periods of self-scrutiny, including therapy ... Following her thought process is sort of a magical, trippy experience, with a whiff of Alice in Wonderland nibbling the magic mushroom.
A Body Made of Glass is a product of impressively thorough research, but it is sometimes circuitous and digressive to the point of frenzy. It blends memoir and literary criticism with micro-histories of subjects of varying relevance ... Still, A Body Made of Glass is full of fascinating forays. If it is hard to read for its claims or conclusions, it can still be read for its many sobering observations about sickness.
Blending memoir and cultural history, it is lucid, broad in scope, full of nuanced reflection ... Crampton’s research is underscored by her compassion for hypochondriacs... and a bleak humour at the daft situations in which they find themselves ... Threaded through this comprehensive historical account are Crampton’s own experiences of health-related trauma, and it’s in these moments that the writing moves from scholarly to elegantly poetic.
