The Empathy Exams: Essays

"The Empathy Exams is a trove of treats for those who enjoy a genre I’ll call “travelisophical”: traveling to a strange world and trying to make philosophical sense of it. It has essays on imprisoned marathoners (“What happens when you confine a man whose whole life is motion?”), a contagious skin condition that’s likely imagined (“Doubting Morgellons hasn’t stopped me from being afraid I’ll get it.”), poverty tourism and a delightful jag on sweetness called “In Defense of Saccharin(e).” Thanks to Leslie Jamison’s sharp mind, questions that could be butchered in somebody else’s hands are executed with such rigor that you emerge candle-dipped in an intelligence you do not possess."