Addition by Toni Jordan

Addition by Toni Jordan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Do you count things? Unconsciously (perhaps) number the stairs you're walking up, or the amount of ravioli on your plate? We all count and measure things to a certain extent: 30 even minutes on the exercise bike, 2 cups of flour in this bread recipe, a 72" x 80" space for an entertainment center... For Grace, absolutely EVERYTHING must be counted, numbered and organized. In groups of 10: 30 books per shelf, 10 almonds for a snack, and the number of poppy seeds on her daily coffee at the cafe determine the number of even bites she must take to consume it. But this is normal right? Just as taking an exact 1000 steps to the supermarket to buy 10 bananas and 10 pieces of chicken and 100 beans for a meal that will cook in exactly 30 minutes so she can eat, read 10 pages, brush her teeth and hair with 100 strokes and be in bed by 10:00 is, right? Unless she has a panic attack and has to count each bristle in her toothbrush before she can use it, and every dish in the kitchen counted and recorded (-1 when in use of course!)... But these are issues everyone deals with, right? RIGHT? Only Seamus is her grip on reality, who has attached himself to her even though she stole 1 banana from him in the check out line to complete her bunch of 10 (disaster avoided!), and with whom she can forget her numbers briefly during beautiful sex~

An Obsessive Compulsive Counting Disorder of this type can become disabling when it becomes too dangerous to drive because you can't look away from the speedometer in fear of not going EXACTLY the speed limit. This book was very thought-provoking, and hit a little too close to home for me- I'm giving it a 5 because I count. Who doesn't?


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