Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

According to Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, LJ 2/15/86), developmental defects, diseases, and disorders play a paradoxical role in human lives. Ravenous and destructive on the one hand, they also bring about unexpected growth and evolution of the extremely adaptive nervous system as it is forced to develop new paths and new ways of doing things. Sacks offers seven portraits exemplifying the "creative" potential of disease, including an artist who loses all sense of color in a car accident but finds a new sensibility and creative power in black and white; a surgeon consumed by the compulsive tics of Tourette's Syndrome unless he is operating; and an autistic Ph.D. who cannot interpret the simplest social exchange between humans but has built a career out of her intuitive understanding of animal behavior. Taking leave of his white coat and the hospital environment, Sacks explores his subjects closely. True to his past work, he offers compelling stories told with the cognizance of a clinician and the heart and compassion of a poet. He also includes a superbly annotated bibliography for further study. This insightful and inspirational collection is essential for all libraries. [BOMC selection.]-David R. Johnson, Arnold LeDoux Lib., Louisiana State Univ., Eunice (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Among doctors who write with acuity and grace, Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) takes a higher place with each successive book. In this provocative collection of previously published essays, the noted neurologist describes his meetings with seven people whose ``abnormalities'' in brain function generate new perspectives on the workings of that organ, the nature of experience and concepts of personality and consciousness. ``It's not gentle,'' notes Canadian surgeon Carl Bennett of Tourette's syndrome; Bennett's compulsive lungings, tics and speech patterns are stilled when he is in the operating room and moderated, Sacks observes firsthand from the passenger seat, while Bennett is flying his Cessna Cardinal. The broad effects and differing degrees of autism are probed in his conversations and observations, over many years, with Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic British artist-prodigy, and his visit with Temple Grandin, an animal behavior specialist. Writing with eloquent particularity and compassionate respect, Sacks enlarges our view of the nature of human experience. Illustrations. 100,000 first printing; BOMC selection; author tour; Random House AudioBook (ISBN 0-679-43956-0, $17). (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Here is another exciting collection of neurological tales from Oliver Sacks! In the same style as his The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985), Sacks presents us with seven case histories enriched with his poetic interpretations of the forces of mind and brain involved in the production of unusual human conditions. There is a suddenly colorblind painter, a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, and a hippie trapped in the 1960s by his brain tumor. Prodigies of various types are described to illustrate cases of visual precocities, such as the artist obsessed with re-creating the town of his childhood over and over, a young savant autistic artist, and the cataract patient who could "see but not see." In the final case study, which gives the book its title, Sacks interviews Temple Grandin, an autistic author and college professor. Grandin's own works include (with Margaret M. Scariano) Emergence: Labeled Austistic (1986), a number of agricultural books, and numerous articles in scientific journals. Grandin is a fascinating woman, and it is a delight to read of Sacks's interaction with her. This chapter alone is worth the addition of this work to libraries with medical and psychologically oriented readers. A prolific prodigy himself, Sacks is also known for his book Awakenings (1973) and the film of the same name. Footnotes, illustrations, endnotes, and suggested readings. All levels. L. Gillikin; College of William and Mary

Booklist Review

Neurologist and always popular author Sacks writes about enigmatic neurological conditions with great compassion and suspense. Here in his best book yet, he writes about severe brain damage, restoring the sight of a man blind since birth, and autism.

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Oliver Sacks was born in London, England on July 9, 1933. He received a medical degree from Queen's College, Oxford University and performed his internship at Middlesex Hospital in London and Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. He completed his residency at UCLA.

In 1965, he became a clinical neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor and Beth Abraham Hospital. His work in a Bronx charity hospital led him to write the book Awakenings in 1973. The book inspired a play by Harold Pinter and became a film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. His other works included An Anthropologist on Mars, The Mind's Eye, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Uncle Tungsten, Musicophilia, A Leg to Stand On, On the Move: A Life, and Gratitude.

In 2007, he ended his 42-year relationship with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to accept an interdisciplinary teaching position at Columbia. In 2012, he returned to the New York University School of Medicine as a professor of neurology. He died of cancer on August 30, 2015 at the age of 82.

(Bowker Author Biography)