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cifose's review against another edition
3.0
"Sure, some news is bigger news than other news. War is bigger news than a girl having mixed feelings about the way some guy fucked her and didn't call. But I don't believe in a finite economy of empathy."
emreads97's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
2.0
wrighkl1's review against another edition
1.0
The author throughout the book tries to empathize with pain that other around her experience. Through her empathy, she also wants to experience the attention associated with their experience to fully embrace and understand. While it’s commendable to want to develop this full understanding to be empathetic, it comes across as self-aggrandizing. The author frequently takes someone else’s experience to show that she too has suffered, but her suffering does not translate into the way she is trying with comparisons of cancer to a scraped knee. This book seems very much attached to a privileged, white female experience and perspective of empathy, that as a white female, I’m sure I cannot relate. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it was difficult because I might have expected too much from the author. The way she mentions attending Harvard almost flippantly, but as if you should notice and be impressed is too egotistical. As well as her constant need to center someone else’s pain in reference to her own. Sometimes, it’s okay to just acknowledge another’s trials without bringing yourself into it. Overall, the book seems narcissistic and self-serving rather than enlarging the scope of empathy.
wicked_sassy's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting read. Some essays were intriguing (the one on Morgellons comes to mind) and others stretched the idea of empathy into meandering self-absorption. Unfortunately, every time the author compared herself to essayists whose work I have enjoyed (Susan Sontag and Caroline Knapp come to mind), her own writing suffered by comparison.
mermaidhaze's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
The last essay is the best one
jcoker10's review against another edition
4.0
A few slow essays in the middle, but punctuated consistently with heart, insight, and spectacular prose. Absolutely worth a read.
skmiles's review against another edition
3.0
Quite an interesting read - the last essay in particular, Wound, was striking, though ups and downs as a collection.
jemiliadavis's review against another edition
3.0
This book was chosen to complement topics surrounding empathy in a course for pre-health students. It wasn't what I had expected; however, I finished the book feeling as though my thoughts had been provoked. Jamison's writing captured the truest sense of a focused journey to discover empathy. There were many one-liners that I found myself re-reading and pausing to digest the honesty and delivery of her message. While some of her personal experiences did float above my level of thinking, the majority of her work was relatable and impactful. Interesting read.