From Powells.com
Staff Pick
An intimate firsthand account of a truly exceptional life, On the Move showcases Sacks's humanity and writing chops while tracing his path toward a game-changing career in neurology. This is the kind of book you'll remember, written by a person whose legacy will endure decades to come. Recommended By Renee P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, BookPage, Slate, Men’s Journal
When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote: “Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far.” It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks writes about the passions that have driven his life—from motorcycles and weight lifting to neurology and poetry. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists—W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick—who have influenced his work. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer, a man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.
Review
“[Sacks is] a wonderful storyteller.... It’s his keen attentiveness
as a listener and observer, and his insatiable curiosity, that makes his
work so powerful.” San Francisco Chronicle
Review
“Marvelous.... He studies himself as he has studied others:
compassionately, unblinkingly, intelligently, acceptingly and honestly.” The Wall Street Journal
Review
“Pulses with his distinctive energy and curiosity.” The New York Review of Books
Review
“A glorious memoir.... In this volume Sacks opens himself to
recognition, much as he has opened the lives of others to being
recognized in their fullness.” The Atlantic
Review
“[A] wonderful memoir, which richly demonstrates what an extraordinary
life it has been.... A fascinating account — a sort of extended case
study, really — of Sacks’ remarkably active, iconoclastic adulthood.” Los Angeles Times
Review
“Intimate.... Brim[s] with life and affection.” The New York Times
About the Author
Oliver Sacks was a physician, writer, and professor of neurology. Born
in London in 1933, he moved to New York City in 1965, where he launched
his medical career and began writing case studies of his patients.
Called the “poet laureate of medicine” by The New York Times, Sacks is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Awakenings,
which inspired an Oscar-nominated film and a play by Harold Pinter. He
was the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees, and was made a
Commander of the British Empire in 2008 for services to medicine. He
died in 2015.