A review by erboe501
The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison

5.0

I'm not sure if this could be considered a memoir (as Robert Polito addresses in the book's Afterword,) but I'm going to go ahead and put it there. I think this speaks to how fantastic EMPATHY EXAMS was: it crossed genres with its personal reflections and journalistic approach. I don't personally identify with the wounded female that Jamison addresses multiple times in the book, but I still appreciate her thoughts. Throughout the book I found myself stopping to find a pencil so I could underline a certain sentence or paragraph that rang as so so true. Jamison hit the nail on the head in her musings on empathy. The topics covered in THE EMPATHY EXAMS range from Morgellons disease to the West Memphis Three without sounding disjointed. Wow wow wow.