Way out of my league but a very good read. I understood about two thirds of it. I hope to one day return to it as there was much food for thought.

Unfortunately I just could not finish this. It is immensely long. It has moments of brilliance but other parts are just too academic, too in-depth and too pretentious. Hustvedt's language can go from engaging to completely off putting in the space of a chapter. Although the premise is fascinating and appeals to the common reader I think it is best reserved for academia. I wrestled with it for months as I hate not finishing books, but life is just too short for this one.

Once again, Siri Hustvedt demonstrates her ability to make me think outside the box. When I read her work, my world is stretched and my perspectives are expanded to look at things around me in a new way. This is not a light read, but that is not the purpose here. The beauty and the magic is in the undertaking.

This book contains a collections of essays by Hustvedt, that were written between 2011 and 2015. Some were a part of a catalogue with an art exhibition, others were when she was asked to deliver a talk, or essays at other occasions. All of these articles draw on insights from both the sciences and the humanities. Basically, Hustvedt is interested in the brain - how it works and how it makes us do what we do. She is fascinated by biology and how human perception works. She is a novelist and a feminist.

Personally, I was taken in by several pieces in this book, but let me just name one as a favourite: The Writing Self and the Psychiatric Patient. this is impressive story about people with mental health issues doing a course in expressive writing. The story as well as her writing style is clearly attached to these patients. Empathy is the main theme and she has a very gentle tone of voice which I highly appreciate in this particular essay.

I feel really bad about not finishing this book. And it definitely reflects more on me than on the book - because it is a me-thing this time. I do not have the mental capacity to read this book at the moment. I already knew that I was in trouble when Siri Hustvedt tells the reader in the introduction that parts of the book might not be understood unless you have very specific knowledge in neuroscience or art history; which I lack, both in fact. I am good enough with art to be able to have a conversation and to put my appreciation in lay person's words, but I do not have any structured knowledge and I lack the vocabulary (both in English and in German) to talk about perception in depth. And when it comes to neuroscience, I am completely at loss. I had to study the basics of neuroscience in school - but what knowledge I acquired is long gone, replaced by other stuff (and that I am even thinking about my brain in this way tells you something about how little I understand about it).

So what I am saying is this: I did not understand most of the essays I tried to read. And with all the books and theoretical pieces I have to read for my PhD and for work in general, there just is not room for a book like this. When I read in my free time, I am fine with being challenged and I like learning new things unrelated to my field of study but this just was too much for me. And it's a shame! I am sure if I had read this book at another time I would have learned so much. Siri Hustvedt seems like such a clever person and I like the way her mind works and the connections she makes. I am beyond impressed by her and by this collection of essays and I am very sure lots of people will enjoy this book. I might come back to this at some point (when my brain is not this overflowing with Hall and Bourdieu and all the ways in which my PhD is messing with my attention span).

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I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that and sorry for not finishing it.

Thanks you for the opportunity to early read but this book and I are not connecting. May be the holiday season but I am finding this much to dense.

Thank you Net Galley. I enjoyed this book. Hustvedt writes beautiful prose with insight and empathy. She is not afraid to challenge popular views and argues well for alternative viewpoints. She is a well read and skilled writer on identity and being, never boring. Highly recommended.