The Beach Reader reviewed The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
Review of 'The Empathy Exams' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Much of this book is very strong, with essays about empathy in medicine, a support group for sufferers of the complicated mental disease known as Morgellons, the California/Mexico border, and a ridiculously difficult long-distance footrace in Tennessee. In the later parts of the book, Jamison sets aside the pleasing specificity and storytelling of the earlier sections, and she lost me. She takes critical looks at how women experience and interact with pain, and how our attitudes toward sentimentality inform the cultural place of artificial sweeteners.
These later pieces aren't without interest, but they are very long-winded, with paragraphs that sweep through a lot of trenchant-sounding phrases that don't end up saying much. The theme of empathy, of our capacity to reach out and depict or imagine or experience another's feelings (especially suffering) is paramount as a strong theme throughout her writing, and I find that a very appropriate topic lately. …
Much of this book is very strong, with essays about empathy in medicine, a support group for sufferers of the complicated mental disease known as Morgellons, the California/Mexico border, and a ridiculously difficult long-distance footrace in Tennessee. In the later parts of the book, Jamison sets aside the pleasing specificity and storytelling of the earlier sections, and she lost me. She takes critical looks at how women experience and interact with pain, and how our attitudes toward sentimentality inform the cultural place of artificial sweeteners.
These later pieces aren't without interest, but they are very long-winded, with paragraphs that sweep through a lot of trenchant-sounding phrases that don't end up saying much. The theme of empathy, of our capacity to reach out and depict or imagine or experience another's feelings (especially suffering) is paramount as a strong theme throughout her writing, and I find that a very appropriate topic lately.
My favorite phrase: when discussing the San Diego / Tijuana border, she refers to the "pageantry of American panic." I love that.
Additionally, I found many of the other reviews of this book on Goodreads/Amazon both ridiculous and disheartening. It takes a special kind of balls to pick up a book of personal essays and then complain that the author spends much of the book talking about herself.
