His Book Review: The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison (2014)

Why he read this book: Listed on multiple lists of best books of 2014

Would he recommend this book: Yes

His review: It would be easy to classify several of the essays in this collection as about women’s issues. Jamison explores how violence, committed against her by a unknown male, impacts her view of herself; the final essay is “Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain.” I admit that as a male reader, I felt like an outsider to the perspective of the emotions Jamison was exploring in these essays. It could be also argued (as I have read in gender theory studies) that her self-aware analysis is non-masculine in approach. She takes a very personal approach to her argument, then steps back to acknowledge the nature of her metanarrative approach to her argument, but then reinforces her personal approach. To some readers, she make come across as indecisive, questioning her argument as she’s making it.

Yet, to label her essays as women’s writing, would be to over simplify the depth of the intellectual and personal analysis in these collections. The best of these essays expertly moves back and forth between deeply personal reactions to the pain and suffering of others (and herself,) and the broader implications of human relations these experiences provoke. Jamison attempts to understand what connects us, and then what disconnects us, from others. The organization of the essays mirror this dance–the earlier ones are much more personal, while the later ones become much more theoretical in their approach. It becomes less about trying to understand her own experiences, and more about trying to understand our shared perspectives.