On recently returned books -- The stupid classics book club -- Weird time in Frankenstein -- Party lit -- Proust and the joy of suffering -- On jealousy -- The intolerable, I guess -- Against completism -- Second selves -- A complicating energy -- Infinite abundance on a narrow ledge -- Insane places -- The uncanny child -- Somethingness (or, why write?) -- Nostalgia for a less innocent time -- Same river, same man -- Selected bibliography -- Acknowledgments

"Contagiously curious essays on reading, art, and the life of the mind from the acclaimed author of The Unreality of Memory"--