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lybarron's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
lbarsk's review against another edition
3.0
Jamison is clearly a gifted writer, and there were times throughout the book when I was totally engrossed and compelled! There were just also times when I felt myself re-reading passages to truly parse what Jamison was arguing. Which I think is a “me” issue, not an authorial one!
I will also say, in part it took me a while to finish this book about suffering, pain, and empathy when I am dealing with multiple chronic illnesses, one of which is flaring up especially strongly (and painfully) at the moment.
BUT! I would love for friends and others to read this because I’d be curious for their thoughts! A book club on on this would be fascinating, I think.
I will also say, in part it took me a while to finish this book about suffering, pain, and empathy when I am dealing with multiple chronic illnesses, one of which is flaring up especially strongly (and painfully) at the moment.
BUT! I would love for friends and others to read this because I’d be curious for their thoughts! A book club on on this would be fascinating, I think.
tenderedge's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing, cerebral, confessional, essential reading. I want to reread the essay on Sacharin again and maybe again. Got a lot of Diet Pepsi in my past and she illuminates the need, aesthetic and visceral, for sweetness.
vaia_the_reader's review against another edition
5.0
Building on previous tropes, conversations and representations this collection explores what it means to be a feeling human. Instead of trapping us as victims, or dismissing people as melodramatic, it claims those possible interpretations and then broadens the narrative--simultaneously acknowledging the reality of suffering while moving forward with this truth strapped to its back. It allows us all room for a more complex relationship with our own pain and for the pain of others. An engaging journey through various mediums, experiences, and perspectives which lend specific insights on the topic at hand. An instant classic in the form. The last two essays in the collection are as near perfection as I've ever read.
mollyblikestoread's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.5
shimmeringice's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Wow. I honestly loved everything about these essays. It was a joy meandering through topics together with the author. It felt like I was watching a champion figure skater nail a routine or a potter turn a hunk of clay into an elegant vase - just the sheer pleasure of witnessing hard won skill in action.
geoffdgeorge's review against another edition
Some really powerful, valuable ideas in this one. Was jiving 100 percent with the title essay's exploration of empathy as something that takes work and will rather than being inherently possessed. Also enjoyed the pieces on Morgellons sufferers, the ultra-runners of the Barkley Marathons, and the West Memphis Three.
I'm seeing a lot of other reviews on here ding the author for inserting herself too much into these essays, but the practice didn't feel intrusive to me. If anything, her weaving of the personal with what she was seeing and trying to relate to outside of herself seemed to be a key part of the whole project.
Jamison mentions her time at the Iowa Writer's Workshop quite a bit, which gave me the feeling that she worked on a lot of these pieces during or not long after her time there. Certain passages have a heavier academic air about them, to such an extent that it did sometimes halt my momentum as a reader (thinking of passages like this: "Wound implies en media res: the cause of injury is past but the healing isn't done; we are seeing this situation in the present tense of its immediate aftermath"). I have Make It Scream, Make It Burn sitting on my shelf, waiting, and I'll be curious, when I get to it, to see how/whether her style has changed with more distance from the writing program. (Though I see on Wikipedia that she jumped from the IWW to a PhD in English Lit at Yale, so ...)
I'm seeing a lot of other reviews on here ding the author for inserting herself too much into these essays, but the practice didn't feel intrusive to me. If anything, her weaving of the personal with what she was seeing and trying to relate to outside of herself seemed to be a key part of the whole project.
Jamison mentions her time at the Iowa Writer's Workshop quite a bit, which gave me the feeling that she worked on a lot of these pieces during or not long after her time there. Certain passages have a heavier academic air about them, to such an extent that it did sometimes halt my momentum as a reader (thinking of passages like this: "Wound implies en media res: the cause of injury is past but the healing isn't done; we are seeing this situation in the present tense of its immediate aftermath"). I have Make It Scream, Make It Burn sitting on my shelf, waiting, and I'll be curious, when I get to it, to see how/whether her style has changed with more distance from the writing program. (Though I see on Wikipedia that she jumped from the IWW to a PhD in English Lit at Yale, so ...)
paterklatter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0