Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood

Jennifer Traig's memoir Devil in the Details paints a portrait of a well-meaning Jewish girl and her good-natured parents, and takes a very funny, very sharp look back at growing up with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Recalling the agony of growing up an obsessive-compulsive religious fanatic, Traig fearlessly confesses the most peculiar behavior like tirelessly scrubbing her hands for a full half hour before dinner, feeding her stuffed animals before herself, and washing everything she owned because she thought it was contaminated by pork fumes. Jennifer's childhood mania was the result of her then undiagnosed OCD joining forces with her Hebrew studies-what psychiatrists call scrupulosity.
While preparing for her bat mitzvah, she was introduced to an entire set of arcane laws and quickly made it her mission to follow them perfectly. Her parents nipped her religious obsession in the bud early on, but as her teen years went by, her natural tendency toward the extreme led her down different paths of adolescent agony and mortification.
Years later, Jennifer remembers these scenes with candor and humor. In the bestselling tradition of Running with Scissors and A Girl Named Zippy, Jennifer Traig tells an unforgettable story of youthful obsession.

Author: Jennifer Traig
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Published: 02/01/2006
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.53lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.56w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9780316010740

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7
Point Value: 12
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 85709 / Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood

Award: Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award - Nominee