This is a very strange book. It took me absolutely ages to finish, and I am glad I did, but it took so much work. I kept trying to imagine who Hustvedt wrote this book for. It did help to remember that it's a collection of essays, written at different times and for different people and purposes. It doesn't feel like a full book, just a haphazard collection of things she's interested in. I didn't fully understand about a quarter of it. Most of this is because I'm not well-read in her specific favorite philosophers and have no background in neuroscience. Perhaps this book just wasn't for me. If I am too hard on it, this is why.

The first section is mostly about art and how we judge it. This was the most enjoyable for me and I sticky-noted a lot of quotes from it. I really liked her commentaries on Picasso and Louise Bourgeois. I also liked her memories from when she was a volunteer writing teacher in a psychiatric ward. 

The second part of the book is a single essay comprising of about 200 pages on a single psychological/philosophical dilemma: the mind-body problem. This felt like it should be published separately as its own book, although I don't think it's nearly interesting enough to have been. Husvedt is not herself a neurologist and I think it's a work trying to be both a psychological paper and a philosophy essay - I won't go far as to say it failed at both, because I'm not an expert in either of them, but... Just like the first one, my picked-out sticky-noted quotes were interesting to me but none of the rest of it.

By the third part, my underlying emotion was fatigue. Most of the essays were given at academic conferences, and I did not have the background knowledge to understand them, which she does acknowledge in the introduction. I did really like the essays on historical hysteria and suicide, respectively. The book ends with an essay on Kierkegaard's pseudonyms, which is so specific and has such a target audience (I assume she published it to that target audience, and I am not it) that it took me aback. A very strange place to end for me - an essay full of books I have not read and opinions that I think only Kierkegaard super-fans would like. (If that's you, you have my full respect, and I hope you enjoy the essay.)

My advice to non-academics who think this book sounds interesting is to read the introduction and then pick out the essays that sound interesting to you! Don't feel like you have to read it cover to cover - I don't think it's meant for that. Read the essays that are relevant to you and your knowledge and then return to the book to the library or gift to an academic friend.