Night Thoughts is a dangerous book. Actor/playwright/essayist Wallace Shawn is best known for his role in The Princess Bride ("Inconceivable!") as well as in My Dinner with Andre (and so many more movies and television shows), and before he died he left us with a few of this lifelong thoughts. 

This is a short book and a quick read, but it's difficult and time-consuming to process. He questions whether civilization itself was worth the trouble, if humans are capable of meting out justice without revenge, if we're willingly dumbing ourselves down, and if there is any hope at all for humanity. So clearly, it's not light reading. 

But it is important reading. And it's written by a man who sent his life studying humans, history, art, philosophy, and all the highest questions of human nature and its possibilities, both for good and for harm. 

Night Thoughts is a lovely, if slightly long-winded essay, that took me on a very emotional journey. Shawn starts by talking about current events and our current political climate, and then goes back several years to the destruction of the Twin Towers. From there he goes back many centuries to talk about man's inhumanity and how throughout history, the lucky have tried (often successfully) to subjugate the unlucky.

Reading it, there were moments of hopelessness, of frustration, of self-awareness, of judgment, of enlightenment, and finally a return to hope. This essay feels like a culmination of a lifetime of contemplation, like he took all his fears and his emotions and his ideas and let them all spill onto the page. It's a powerful read, and it has the possibility to change minds. I don't think it's going to change someone's political party or religion or anything. But it could make you look at the world in a completely different way. I recommend it, but only for those who are ready for the deep thoughts that come in the dark of night. But even so, each dark night becomes a new morning, with yet another chance to change the world. 

Galleys for Night Thoughts were provided by Haymarket Books through Edelweiss, with many thanks.