vickysimpson's review against another edition
5.0
Oliver Sacks led an incredible life and is a fantastic writer.. This review by Maria Popova expresses more beautifully than I could some of what Sacks explores through his autobiography : https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/18/oliver-sacks-on-the-move/
sfletcher26's review against another edition
5.0
On the whole I have never been a fan of autobiography. It's a form that has leant itself far to easily to the "I did this" and "I did that" school of writing. It has also in resent years become the thing that the C list celebrity does to validate their own being. For me the biography, the slightly more dispassionate and removed book, has been more interesting and often more enjoyable. Every once in a while though an autobiography appears that is the exception to the rule. This book by Oliver Sacks is one of those books.
Sacks, a neurologist probably best know for his book Awakenings, candidly talks about his life, including his sexuality and his drug adiction as well as his work into the mysteries of the mind. The style of his writing is topical rather than linear and is, in my mind, better for it.
His death earlier this year is a sad loss but this, his last book, marks a great end to an amazingly lived life.
Sacks, a neurologist probably best know for his book Awakenings, candidly talks about his life, including his sexuality and his drug adiction as well as his work into the mysteries of the mind. The style of his writing is topical rather than linear and is, in my mind, better for it.
His death earlier this year is a sad loss but this, his last book, marks a great end to an amazingly lived life.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
5.0
It was great to spend a little more time with Dr. Oliver Sacks by reading this memoir--On the Move: A Life. There is just so much life in these pages. And I can't wait to discuss it with my book club.
I especially enjoyed a look at the development of his books and how reading 19th-century medical literature leads to the formation of his writing style with case stories. I had a chuckle when after submitting the manuscript for A Leg to Stand On, which was about his recovery after severely breaking his leg--that he broke his leg again. A Leg to Stand On was in proofs at this point, and his publisher responded with, "Oliver! You'd do anything for a footnote."
I especially enjoyed a look at the development of his books and how reading 19th-century medical literature leads to the formation of his writing style with case stories. I had a chuckle when after submitting the manuscript for A Leg to Stand On, which was about his recovery after severely breaking his leg--that he broke his leg again. A Leg to Stand On was in proofs at this point, and his publisher responded with, "Oliver! You'd do anything for a footnote."
designwise's review against another edition
5.0
Daring to experiment in all aspects of his life, Oliver Sacks is one of my role models.
author_d_r_oestreicher's review against another edition
4.0
On the Move by Oliver Sacks is a memoir distilled from a thousand journals kept by this prolific author throughout his 75 years. Dr. Sacks was a neurologist, but his memoir treats this as a secondary activity, a background activity for his curiosity and empathy for his patients, himself, and others. Much of his writing harkens back to nineteenth-century medical cases, where the patient’s history was holistic, everything was relevant, compared to today’s scientific papers. This is what made him such a popular author.
When a scholarly, scientific friend told Dr. Sacks, “You’re no theoretician,” he replied, “I know but I am a field-worker, and you need the sort of fieldwork I do for the sort of theory making you do.” Dr. Sacks lead an interesting life, and his fieldwork makes for interesting reading.
For my detailed report: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/07/on-move-by-oliver-sacks.html
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.
When a scholarly, scientific friend told Dr. Sacks, “You’re no theoretician,” he replied, “I know but I am a field-worker, and you need the sort of fieldwork I do for the sort of theory making you do.” Dr. Sacks lead an interesting life, and his fieldwork makes for interesting reading.
For my detailed report: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/07/on-move-by-oliver-sacks.html
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.
elpanek's review against another edition
5.0
There is something childlike about the way Oliver Sacks approached life. It was partly the intensity of his curiosity, a curiosity that transformed everything – even Sacks’ own intense physical pain and his inevitable decrepitude – into insight. It was also his distance from the trappings of the typical adult life – the sobering responsibilities of parenthood, the sharing of a life with a partner, the duties of citizenship. This detachment allowed him to prioritize curiosity in a way that few of us can, to pursue it from England to San Francisco to Micronesia to wherever it led him next (hence: On The Move). Immediately before reading this book, I’d read a book about a famous hermit, and it was hard not to see parallels. Sacks wasn’t antisocial; so many of his encounters with patients, collaborators, and family make it clear that he was deeply empathetic and compassionate, refuting the stereotype of the aloof scientist. He loved people and people loved him, but ideas, not people, were always his North Star. For most of us, a life of the mind is a lonely, selfish one. For Sacks, it was illuminating.
His life, like many, is most interesting when it is least stable, in his 20’s. The juxtaposition of Sacks’ younger self – among the fellow hardbodies on Muscle Beach – with his more well-known public self – once described as a ‘stray Santa Claus’ – is striking, and for readers who are familiar only with the eventual Oliver Sacks, the thrill of discovering the man behind the work is part of the pleasure of reading this book. But the bulk of the pleasure comes from Sacks’ infectious love of scientific discovery, and of writing. Pop science is a burgeoning genre, but most often, journalists are grafted onto scientific breakthroughs so as to make them more comprehensible to a general audience. Sacks was a rare bird: an innovator in his field as well as a great writer who blended an ability to evoke character and a sense of place with an ability to do justice to the complexity of science, to be honest about its unsexyness rather than force it to conform to some narrative arc. He had a rare vantage point spanning the gap between science and literature, and he made the most of it. In this book, he turns that gift on himself, but he’s too modest to take center stage for very long. The real subject is the same as the subject of every Sacks’ book: our undiscovered minds.
His life, like many, is most interesting when it is least stable, in his 20’s. The juxtaposition of Sacks’ younger self – among the fellow hardbodies on Muscle Beach – with his more well-known public self – once described as a ‘stray Santa Claus’ – is striking, and for readers who are familiar only with the eventual Oliver Sacks, the thrill of discovering the man behind the work is part of the pleasure of reading this book. But the bulk of the pleasure comes from Sacks’ infectious love of scientific discovery, and of writing. Pop science is a burgeoning genre, but most often, journalists are grafted onto scientific breakthroughs so as to make them more comprehensible to a general audience. Sacks was a rare bird: an innovator in his field as well as a great writer who blended an ability to evoke character and a sense of place with an ability to do justice to the complexity of science, to be honest about its unsexyness rather than force it to conform to some narrative arc. He had a rare vantage point spanning the gap between science and literature, and he made the most of it. In this book, he turns that gift on himself, but he’s too modest to take center stage for very long. The real subject is the same as the subject of every Sacks’ book: our undiscovered minds.
es42's review against another edition
4.0
The first half (describing his youth and early years, his travels) is amazing. Sacks has an interesting story and can tell it like no other. The second half (where he mostly talks about his various books and projects) is a bit tedious, but there are some great moments as well.
dmturner's review against another edition
3.0
A rambling memoir that at the beginning paints a very affecting picture of the young Sacks (motorcycle enthusiast, drug addict, gay man, doctor) without whitewashing his weaknesses and mistakes. The second half of the book is a combination of Great Minds I Have Known and Everybody I Love Has Died, and ends rather oddly in mid-air.
Sacks is one of my favorite writers about the strangeness of the human brain (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Hallucinations are on my re-read list), and his books are distinguished by a respect for the humanity of his subjects that turns conventional doctor-speak on its head. He himself had some neurological idiosyncrasies (migraines and proposagnosia, among others) and writes about those candidly too. However, though I managed to soldier through this book, I somehow felt it lacked the respect for himself that dignified his other readings. A shame.
Sacks is one of my favorite writers about the strangeness of the human brain (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Hallucinations are on my re-read list), and his books are distinguished by a respect for the humanity of his subjects that turns conventional doctor-speak on its head. He himself had some neurological idiosyncrasies (migraines and proposagnosia, among others) and writes about those candidly too. However, though I managed to soldier through this book, I somehow felt it lacked the respect for himself that dignified his other readings. A shame.
agingerg's review against another edition
4.0
About reading old letters, "Now, trying to reconstruct parts of my life, such as the very crucial, eventful time when I came to America in 1960, I find these old letters a great treasure, a corrective to the deceits of memory and fantasy." What an incredible life he had.