Living, Thinking, Looking

Hustvedt, a novelist (The Summer Without Men) and nonfiction writer (The Shaking Woman: Or, a History of My Nerves), offers a third collection of her essays. She organizes the 32 pieces here, most previously published, into three categories following her title: personal essays ("Living"); philosophical, neurological puzzles ("Thinking"); and investigations of how we see and experience art ("Looking"). She draws insights from philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and literature as she explores the fundamental questions of what it means to be human. Her multidisciplinary approach proves especially effective in the essays on art as she discusses our relationship with the photographic image in Gerhard Richter's "painted over photos" and our fascination with Goya's violent yet compelling images.