To Feel Stuff - by Andrea Seigel (Paperback)

About the Book

College student Elodie Harrington suffers such a frequent barrage of illnesses that she moves into the Brown University infirmary. A doctor becomes convinced he can make his professional mark by cracking her case, but he's entirely unprepared for what he encounters in this novel that explores the contrast between the first frisson of mortality and a life lived in defiance of it.

Book Synopsis

Meet Elodie Harrington, college student and medical anomaly. From chicken pox to tuberculosis, Elodie suffers such a frequent barrage of illnesses that she moves into the Brown University infirmary. When charismatic Chess Hunter enters the infirmary with two smashed knees, he and Elodie begin an intense affair, but Chess is only a visitor to Elodie's perpetual state of medical siege. As he heals, he moves back to his former life. Elodie heads in the other direction and begins to see a ghost. When Professor Mark Kirschling, M.D., gets wind of Elodie, he's convinced he can make his professional mark by cracking her case but he's entirely unprepared for what he's about to encounter.

Andrea Seigel has found a wry, ingenious way to explore the contrast between the first frisson of mortality and a life lived in defiance of it.

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR LIKE THE RED PANDA

"Like a contemporary Catcher in the Rye in knee socks . . . a fresh, heart-breaking and tragicomic take on life."-PEOPLE

"[Gives] voice to those wickedly funny things that everyone thinks but nobody would dare to say out loud."-SEVENTEEN

"Like the Red Panda succeeds because it transcends cliché . . . By artfully evoking the despair, even the hopelessness, of such an endearing character, Seigel reaffirms our own private hope that maybe, after all, life does have meaning."-SALON