A philosophical book and autobiographical fiction in which Part I and Part II unfold (left) side by (right) side. Part I analyzes and deconstructs what the author calls the problem of the “self-image,” a question at once philosophical and deeply personal. Part II takes the point reached by this philosophical journey as a point of departure for another form of writing. This writing draws forth the past that composes the narrator’s present—memories reaching back, perhaps, to the very origins of self-consciousness—and unfolds in a rhythm that is repetitive, at times even tedious.