Author David Shields loves a particular phrase of Picasso’s: “A great painting comes together, just barely.”

Shields’ newest book, “How Literature Saved My Life,” does just this. Combining dissonant elements of confessional criticism, painfully honest autobiography and artful observation, Shields ponders why we seek salvation in literature and how it can (and can’t) make people less lonely and life more livable in a passionate and thought-provoking way.

Like its deceivingly straightforward title, the book refuses any one conclusive interpretation. Shields favors the literary style of collage, where the text is comprised of staccato fragments of essays, quotations, musings and anecdotes that flow like a conversation or stream of thoughts rather than a conventional, linear narrative. Shields incorporates the thoughts and works of countless other writers and artists like David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy and Kurt Cobain and builds them upon his own painstakingly honest and often humorous experiences, creating something of a textual springboard for his thoughts.

What stands out in “How Literature Saved My Life” is Shields’ brilliant insight into the workings of our present culture, acknowledging that in a technology-dominated and entertainment-saturated world, literature still plays a vital but rapidly changing role. Shields wants his readers to know that he takes literature very, very seriously; seriously enough that he’s fed up with literature that “simply allows us to escape existence.” Shields revels in the idea of a “transfer of consciousness” between reader and writer, of breaking conventional literary forms to create a kind of “postmodernism with a human face.” He quotes Kafka in this respect: “A book should be an ax to break the frozen sea within us.”

Throughout the book, Shields does his best to hack away at the icy waters as he questions art, literature and life. Raw, unique, thought-provoking and altogether human, “How Literature Saved My Life” is a worthwhile read for anyone who has ever sought solace in the written word.