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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
I love Oliver Sacks's books, and learning his own story in full made me love him as a person.
A little disjointed (and therefore repetitive) but Sacks is always delightful.
The casual reader probably knows Sacks best as the author of medical/neurological case studies as in "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Awakenings," the book on which the movie of the same name was based. What they might not know is that Sacks is gay but was quiet about it until near the end of his life, and I believe this memoir was kind of Sacks' coming out, in his mid-to-late 70s!
The book does move sort of chronologically, but he hops back and forth in time and really organizes it by topic. It's called "On the Move" in part because of his love of motorcycles and also after a poem by his friend Thom Gunn. Sacks talks a bit about his childhood, a lot about his medical training and experiments with drugs, about body building, the books he wrote but that never got published because the manuscripts were lost, and the people and incidents that inspired his many books over the years.
It's really hard to summarize what the book is about because Sacks' interests range so far and wide, but I really did enjoy this quite a lot. Sacks died a few years ago, and I think his work as writer who could translate medical ideas into narratives that the average person could grasp will be remembered. I'd like to go back and read more of his books (I believe I've read "Hat" and "Awakenings" but both more than 10 years ago).
The book does move sort of chronologically, but he hops back and forth in time and really organizes it by topic. It's called "On the Move" in part because of his love of motorcycles and also after a poem by his friend Thom Gunn. Sacks talks a bit about his childhood, a lot about his medical training and experiments with drugs, about body building, the books he wrote but that never got published because the manuscripts were lost, and the people and incidents that inspired his many books over the years.
It's really hard to summarize what the book is about because Sacks' interests range so far and wide, but I really did enjoy this quite a lot. Sacks died a few years ago, and I think his work as writer who could translate medical ideas into narratives that the average person could grasp will be remembered. I'd like to go back and read more of his books (I believe I've read "Hat" and "Awakenings" but both more than 10 years ago).
I am giving this book 3 stars because it includes many wonderful things but also rambles at times. I really think it could have benefitted from a good edit pass.
Still, if you are an Oliver Sacks fan, you should probably read it.
And if you don't know about Oliver Sacks, you might want to learn about him. He is both brilliant and entertaining. (If you do not want to read a book, find the Radiolab interview with him near the end of his life.)
Still, if you are an Oliver Sacks fan, you should probably read it.
And if you don't know about Oliver Sacks, you might want to learn about him. He is both brilliant and entertaining. (If you do not want to read a book, find the Radiolab interview with him near the end of his life.)
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
I recently started a new job that requires an hour commute each way in Chicago traffic. In order to combat my newly emerged road rage, I listened to my first ever audio book.
Listening to this book actually made me look forward to driving! Lovely to listen to the wonderful Oliver Sacks. The narrator, though excellent, has an American accent. Oliver Sacks had such a sweet, soft Oxford-trained accent, that this created a confused image in my brain.
The book meanders a lot and jumps between times frequently, but it manages to fit and flow quite well. Recommend to anyone who's a fan of Sacks or has read one of his books and thought he sounded like quite an interesting fellow (and he certainly was).
Listening to this book actually made me look forward to driving! Lovely to listen to the wonderful Oliver Sacks. The narrator, though excellent, has an American accent. Oliver Sacks had such a sweet, soft Oxford-trained accent, that this created a confused image in my brain.
The book meanders a lot and jumps between times frequently, but it manages to fit and flow quite well. Recommend to anyone who's a fan of Sacks or has read one of his books and thought he sounded like quite an interesting fellow (and he certainly was).
I enjoyed this book most when it was dealing with the personal components of Sacks’ life - early life, and formative experiences. Less so the professional issues and professional relationships in such a dense, blow by blow way.
This is no doubt a well written book by a critical figure in neurology, and I love the highlight of patient as being important alongside disease. This conveys Sacks’ belief in the humanistic, giving side of Medicine.
This is no doubt a well written book by a critical figure in neurology, and I love the highlight of patient as being important alongside disease. This conveys Sacks’ belief in the humanistic, giving side of Medicine.
This feels like blasphemy, but I did not like this memoir by Oliver Sacks. It's the first book of his I have not liked. To me, it was like reading a not very interesting journal. I do now know much more about the details of his life, but the book itself was not engaging. I did not come away feeling that I knew more about the man. Disappointing.