What’s the point in studying philosophy if you’re the only person left on earth? Our narrator doesn’t ask herself this, but her recorded thoughts lead to these kinds of questions. Self-admittedly mad, Kate believes she is the last living creature on earth and is recording her thoughts on a typewriter. She spends less time recounting her actions than she does pondering random oddball facts of history’s famous artists and philosophers. Her actions and thoughts are comments themselves on these philosophers’ lives works, although she never mentions them directly, opting instead to discuss their pets and sex lives, etc. She often confuses facts and an existential quality hovers about her, though she persists. She is witty and curious, so her thoughts are fun to read. There is absolutely no plot, and we barely get any information about her history, outside of the occasional mention of an incident like rolling tennis balls down the Spanish steps or living in the Louvre. I know very little about philosophy, so a ton of this book surely went right over my head, but I still enjoyed the experience and connected with Kate’s bizarre plight.