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Și dumneata cum ești, dr. Sacks?
~ Oliver tace preț de câteva momente, reflectând la acel ultim gând, concentrându‑se pe sushi. „Peste toate eșecurile mele și suicidul care probabil va termina cu toate, eu am sentimentul că totuși m‑am dezvoltat, că aș fi diferit la 50 de ani față de cum eram la 40, la 40 decât eram la 30. Nu știu cum suportă cei care nu se dezvoltă.“
Cum consideră el că s‑a dezvoltat?
„Eu cred că sunt mai profund. Sunt mai conștient de profunzimi și abisuri și de ceea ce cu siguranță am simțit și trăit, deși este dificil de exprimat în cuvinte.“ Face o pauză, oftează. „Dar, firește, de fapt nu am mers înainte. Eu am mers înapoi. Sunt într‑o stare mai nefericită cu fiecare deceniu.“ ~
Lawrence Weschler
Lawrence Weschler este un editor cu vechime al The New Yorker, director al New York Institute of the Humanities și autorul a peste 20 de cărți, dintre careamintim Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Everything That Rises sau Vermeer in Bosnia.
Povestea nespusa a doctorului Oliver Sacks
,,Trebuia să fie un alt proiect. Pe atunci îmi închipuisem ceva de genul unei biografii de la mijlocul carierei și luasem notițe în acest sens. Dar viața și‑a urmat cursul, alte lucruri au început să‑mi consume atenția, au trecut decenii, iar eu mă oprisem din arhivarea chestiunilor care țineau de Sacks în felul în care ar fi trebuit s‑o facă, dacă aveam de gând să mă apuc de o biografie autentică. Oricum – am mai spus asta? – omul suferea de grafomanie.
Ce ți‑e și cu rafturile care gem sub greutatea caietelor de notițe! Într‑o zi, cineva își va asuma acest proiect al unei biografii complete a lui Oliver Sacks și va fi o carte extraordinară în acel moment, dar acea persoană va trebui să fie cu mult mai tânără decât sunt eu acum. Îi doresc numai bine acelei persoane și o invidiez.
În schimb, ceea ce‑mi propun eu să fac aici este, în esență, ceva mai degrabă similar unui memoriu, mai ales referitor la acei patru ani de la începutul lui 1980, în care am fost pe lângă el un fel de Boswell, dacă el ar fi fost un fel de Johnson, sau un fel de Sancho care l‑ar fi sprijinit pe al său uriaș Quijote.”
Lawrence Weschler
Cum consideră el că s‑a dezvoltat?
„Eu cred că sunt mai profund. Sunt mai conștient de profunzimi și abisuri și de ceea ce cu siguranță am simțit și trăit, deși este dificil de exprimat în cuvinte.“ Face o pauză, oftează. „Dar, firește, de fapt nu am mers înainte. Eu am mers înapoi. Sunt într‑o stare mai nefericită cu fiecare deceniu.“ ~
Lawrence Weschler
Lawrence Weschler este un editor cu vechime al The New Yorker, director al New York Institute of the Humanities și autorul a peste 20 de cărți, dintre careamintim Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Everything That Rises sau Vermeer in Bosnia.
Povestea nespusa a doctorului Oliver Sacks
,,Trebuia să fie un alt proiect. Pe atunci îmi închipuisem ceva de genul unei biografii de la mijlocul carierei și luasem notițe în acest sens. Dar viața și‑a urmat cursul, alte lucruri au început să‑mi consume atenția, au trecut decenii, iar eu mă oprisem din arhivarea chestiunilor care țineau de Sacks în felul în care ar fi trebuit s‑o facă, dacă aveam de gând să mă apuc de o biografie autentică. Oricum – am mai spus asta? – omul suferea de grafomanie.
Ce ți‑e și cu rafturile care gem sub greutatea caietelor de notițe! Într‑o zi, cineva își va asuma acest proiect al unei biografii complete a lui Oliver Sacks și va fi o carte extraordinară în acel moment, dar acea persoană va trebui să fie cu mult mai tânără decât sunt eu acum. Îi doresc numai bine acelei persoane și o invidiez.
În schimb, ceea ce‑mi propun eu să fac aici este, în esență, ceva mai degrabă similar unui memoriu, mai ales referitor la acei patru ani de la începutul lui 1980, în care am fost pe lângă el un fel de Boswell, dacă el ar fi fost un fel de Johnson, sau un fel de Sancho care l‑ar fi sprijinit pe al său uriaș Quijote.”
Lawrence Weschler
424 pages, Paperback
First published August 13, 2019
164 people are currently reading
1292 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Weschler
82 books123 followersLawrence Weschler, a graduate of Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz (1974), was for over twenty years (1981-2002) a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award (for Cultural Reporting in 1988 and Magazine Reporting in 1992) and was also a recipient of Lannan Literary Award (1998).
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
November 29, 2019
Review to come of this wonderful, enlightening memoir of Oliver Sacks written in a unique way, that I've never seen any memoir written before. This is Oliver Sacks the man, not the neurologist.
April 26, 2019
The world is largely indifferent to opinions, but everybody needs a good laugh, so I offer up two funny passages from this book.
I thought I read once that Kurt Vonnegut jokingly suggested that his memoirs would be entitled Hell to Live With. I can't find immediate confirmation of this on the internet, so I suggest it as an alternate title to this book. Sachs, as portrayed by his longtime friend, comes off as some madcap offspring of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, super-brainy, but tending to get into scrapes due to a combination of bad judgment, stubbornness, indifference to social norms, and the desire to do good.
A small amount of previous experience with the work of Sachs will also add to the enjoyment, which is to say, it's sort of a book for fans. I read Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, and that was certainly enough context for this book.
I plead guilty to occasional skimming. Sachs apparently spent a long time with writer's block during composition of the book that would ultimately be titled A Leg to Stand On (ALTSO), and sometimes I just wanted to yell at my ebook reader, “Just finish the damn book already.” I imagine many of his friends must have felt the same way. Another skimming episode occurred when the author re-printed parts of a long negative review of ALTSO from a British magazine. It should say something to the reader that, while Sachs is often a pleasure to read, the negative review is eye-wateringly dull and pompous.
In lieu of a traditional “you should read this book”, I think I will conclude this recommendation by stating that it made me vow to go back to the some of works of the man himself that I have yet to read, because he comes off as somebody who would be great to be with in book form, where you can easily close him up and put him down.
His housekeeper regularly writes him lists of things he should buy. “The other day,” he tells me, “prominent on the list was the word 'FAIL.' I figured this must be some prodigiously self-deprecatory detergent and set about looking for it. But no stores had it – and I decided the name must have been self-fulfilling. Or so I reported to my housekeeper when I came home, to which she countered, 'No no, you idiot – not fail – FOIL!' .” (Kindle location 4033)
… Oliver is, he tells me over the phone, in a “parasuicidal rage. Indeed,” he goes on, “in the absence of alcohol I have just consumed an entire bottle of Worcestershire sauce and it is making me hiccup violently.” (l. 4201)Those nice people at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley allowed me to have a free electronic review copy of this book, so I dived in at the beginning and read it through to the end, trying to keep up a momentum because I think the implicit promise here is that the review should be written before the book is published. Although I enjoyed the book well enough in this way, I think the book might be enjoyed better if you picked it up, read an entertaining chapter, and then perhaps put it aside for a few weeks. Alternately, you could borrow it from the library, read a few chapters (perhaps reading out of order would even be better), return it to the library, and borrow it again a few weeks later. The reason I suggest this eccentric method is that there is a certain amount of overlap in consecutive chapters, which can be a little tiresome if you are speeding through the book in a linear fashion, but would probably be completely welcome if you haven't opened it for a few weeks.
I thought I read once that Kurt Vonnegut jokingly suggested that his memoirs would be entitled Hell to Live With. I can't find immediate confirmation of this on the internet, so I suggest it as an alternate title to this book. Sachs, as portrayed by his longtime friend, comes off as some madcap offspring of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, super-brainy, but tending to get into scrapes due to a combination of bad judgment, stubbornness, indifference to social norms, and the desire to do good.
A small amount of previous experience with the work of Sachs will also add to the enjoyment, which is to say, it's sort of a book for fans. I read Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, and that was certainly enough context for this book.
I plead guilty to occasional skimming. Sachs apparently spent a long time with writer's block during composition of the book that would ultimately be titled A Leg to Stand On (ALTSO), and sometimes I just wanted to yell at my ebook reader, “Just finish the damn book already.” I imagine many of his friends must have felt the same way. Another skimming episode occurred when the author re-printed parts of a long negative review of ALTSO from a British magazine. It should say something to the reader that, while Sachs is often a pleasure to read, the negative review is eye-wateringly dull and pompous.
In lieu of a traditional “you should read this book”, I think I will conclude this recommendation by stating that it made me vow to go back to the some of works of the man himself that I have yet to read, because he comes off as somebody who would be great to be with in book form, where you can easily close him up and put him down.
January 14, 2022
This is a rather curious memoir. It started life in about 1980 when Weschler proposed writing a bio of Oliver Sacks. The neurologist agreed (at the time, despite being some 10 years after
Awakenings
he was still relatively unknown) and Weschler began following him around, taking copious notes, interviewing some of his closest friends and in the process becoming a close friend himself.
By the mid-eighties, Sacks was becoming much better known and Weschler thought it was time to begin writing, but there was a major obstacle: Sacks did not want any mention or hint that he was gay. However (as anyone who has read Sacks’s moving autobiography knows), that would have made it impossible to say anything meaningful about him - his early life or his relationships. So Weschler abandoned the project until shortly before Sacks’s death in 2015 when he was encouraged – actually urged - to complete it, as Sacks had in the mean time become reconciled with his sexuality. So here we are.
I say curious because it’s as much an account of their developing friendship over those short five-odd years as it is about Sacks and his life and work. Also, as Weschler says, much of what he was planning to write about had just been revealed in that autobiography. Despite all that, this really is an engaging and insightful portrait of a unique and brilliant man, and provides a wonderful perspective and background to Sacks’s own writings. The contributions from his friends and colleagues were, I thought, particularly insightful. (Actually, some of the comments felt a little too creepily similar to psychoanalysis, but then Sacks was as monumentally neurotic as he was brilliant.)
Weschler himself is a dreadful namedropper – perhaps understandable as he is a multi-talented writer, sometime columnist for the New Yorker and many other literary mags – though initially that did leave me wondering just who this bio was supposed to be about. But he is an excellent writer, and this is a loving and perceptive, though not uncritical, work that just grew on me. Four stars plus.
If you really don’t want to read it though, there is a nice CBC Radio interview with Weschler here.
By the mid-eighties, Sacks was becoming much better known and Weschler thought it was time to begin writing, but there was a major obstacle: Sacks did not want any mention or hint that he was gay. However (as anyone who has read Sacks’s moving autobiography knows), that would have made it impossible to say anything meaningful about him - his early life or his relationships. So Weschler abandoned the project until shortly before Sacks’s death in 2015 when he was encouraged – actually urged - to complete it, as Sacks had in the mean time become reconciled with his sexuality. So here we are.
I say curious because it’s as much an account of their developing friendship over those short five-odd years as it is about Sacks and his life and work. Also, as Weschler says, much of what he was planning to write about had just been revealed in that autobiography. Despite all that, this really is an engaging and insightful portrait of a unique and brilliant man, and provides a wonderful perspective and background to Sacks’s own writings. The contributions from his friends and colleagues were, I thought, particularly insightful. (Actually, some of the comments felt a little too creepily similar to psychoanalysis, but then Sacks was as monumentally neurotic as he was brilliant.)
Weschler himself is a dreadful namedropper – perhaps understandable as he is a multi-talented writer, sometime columnist for the New Yorker and many other literary mags – though initially that did leave me wondering just who this bio was supposed to be about. But he is an excellent writer, and this is a loving and perceptive, though not uncritical, work that just grew on me. Four stars plus.
If you really don’t want to read it though, there is a nice CBC Radio interview with Weschler here.
May 23, 2020
The first part was interesting. Unfortunately, it became more and more dreary and I gave up at chapter 17. It did not help that there was more and more ‘raw material’ about the interaction between the biographer and his subject, in the form of too many transcripts of notes, letters etc.
December 13, 2019
I think Oliver Sacks is one of the most interesting people of the 20th century, but this book was difficult to get through. I know the author started it years ago, was asked to stop, and then picked it back up - that's how it read. It didn't really have flow, and was kind of told in fits and starts. The subject matter was interesting, but I think it could have used some editing/finessing.
November 8, 2022
3,5⭐ pt că i-am citit și iubit autobiografia nu am reușit să mă "gudur"pe lângă profilul acestui Oliver Sacks deși îmi povestea despre aceleași evenimente din viața lui e imposibil de realizat candoarea care numai lui Olli îi ieșea prin scris 😌
E mai degrabă o părere generală despre un om care a fost particular în sensibilitatea sa.
E mai degrabă o părere generală despre un om care a fost particular în sensibilitatea sa.
August 16, 2019
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
And How Are You, Dr. Sacks? is an intricately crafted, honest, and fascinating memoir and biography of Dr. Oliver Sacks by nonfiction titan Lawrence Weschler. Released 13th Aug by Macmillan on their Farrar, Straus & Giroux imprint, it's 400 pages and available in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats.
The point for me with biography is that the book captures the voice of the subject. This book really made Oliver Sacks live for me. The author had an enduring friendship and access to Dr. Sacks over decades. Additionally, he had detailed notes and interviews with friends and acquaintances as well as papers, journals, and letters.
I was familiar with Dr. Sacks through his works, Awakenings , and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat , and thought at the time that he would be a fascinating person to know. This book has cemented that to a certainty. What a fascinating man he was!
In a lot of ways, Sacks reminded me of Richard Feynman, both polymaths, both incredibly brilliant, both quite odd in a lot of ways, brutally (unwittingly?) honest, especially with people. There's also a lot of wit and humor here. The retelling of him being in a rage and, in the absence of alcohol, chugging a bottle of Worcestershire sauce which made him hiccup violently, made me giggle out loud.
This is a brilliant biography and is told with honesty, kindness, and warmth. The author is a prodigiously talented writer and the prose (even with difficult or sad subjects) is written with generosity and fairness. The story of his and his brother's experiences as children at boarding school moved me to tears.
Five stars. I recommend it unreservedly to lovers of biography, science bio, nonfiction, medical bios, etc.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
And How Are You, Dr. Sacks? is an intricately crafted, honest, and fascinating memoir and biography of Dr. Oliver Sacks by nonfiction titan Lawrence Weschler. Released 13th Aug by Macmillan on their Farrar, Straus & Giroux imprint, it's 400 pages and available in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats.
The point for me with biography is that the book captures the voice of the subject. This book really made Oliver Sacks live for me. The author had an enduring friendship and access to Dr. Sacks over decades. Additionally, he had detailed notes and interviews with friends and acquaintances as well as papers, journals, and letters.
I was familiar with Dr. Sacks through his works, Awakenings , and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat , and thought at the time that he would be a fascinating person to know. This book has cemented that to a certainty. What a fascinating man he was!
In a lot of ways, Sacks reminded me of Richard Feynman, both polymaths, both incredibly brilliant, both quite odd in a lot of ways, brutally (unwittingly?) honest, especially with people. There's also a lot of wit and humor here. The retelling of him being in a rage and, in the absence of alcohol, chugging a bottle of Worcestershire sauce which made him hiccup violently, made me giggle out loud.
This is a brilliant biography and is told with honesty, kindness, and warmth. The author is a prodigiously talented writer and the prose (even with difficult or sad subjects) is written with generosity and fairness. The story of his and his brother's experiences as children at boarding school moved me to tears.
Five stars. I recommend it unreservedly to lovers of biography, science bio, nonfiction, medical bios, etc.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
April 16, 2020
This is a wonderful book, opening the world of Oliver Sacks to all of us. He was above all, an intellectual philosopher, and something of a character. The author gives insight into his personality, with all of its quirks. This is done through many letters which Oliver wrote to the author of this biography. It shows just how his mind was always working -- sometimes so fast that his thoughts eclipse his speech and how his thoughts jump suddenly with the sometimes difficult to establish segues, which he then explains ... or doesn't. His curiosity and playfulness sometimes come out boldly, as well as his times of sudden anger and fixations on strange things. He seems to have looked at his patients with a focus on science and art. The author had a great job of trying to explain and capture the personality of this enigma, but I think he succeeded.
April 29, 2021
Maybe a bit long, since I know a lot of the most outrageous stories by now. But it's fun hanging out with Sacks and Weschler (his book on the Museum of Jurassic Technology is pretty great), and eavesdropping on all the nuanced conversations. The ending is sad but life-affirming.
June 7, 2019
Weschler befriended Oliver Sacks back in the 1980s and planned to write a biographical piece about him, which Sacks later asked him not to publish. Then several years ago as he was dying, he changed his mind and insisted Weschler write the book after all. This is the book. I just love Oliver Sacks. You know those "who would you like to eat dinner with, dead or alive?" questions that I hate because I never know how to answer them? Well, in reading just the prologue to this book, I realized my answer is Oliver Sacks. I adore his books and the picture I've gotten of him over the years. It is rare that I am very much affected by the deaths of "famous" people, but I found myself repeatedly crying for several days after finding out he had died. All of this is just to say that I was very excited to be able to read this book, and it did not disappoint. The majority of the book is focused on the time around when Weschler met Dr. Sacks and originally planned to write about him, in the 80s, and it's very interesting to see him from the perspective of someone who knew him. He was such an odd man and I imagine quite a difficult one at times, but if anything, I feel even more sad that he is gone after having read this. I loved it. Five stars.
October 5, 2019
Skimmed thru last half. TMI
September 19, 2019
Listen: it's not like I'd never heard of Oliver Sacks. And I suppose I had a vague intention to read him—someday, possibly in my dotage (which shall, incidentally, also be filled with Dickens). But it wasn't an active desire until I went to a talk Lawrence Weschler (whose book
Everything that Rises
I found oddly brilliant) gave about this project, his Oliver Sacks memoir. I did read
An Anthropologist on Mars
to give myself some orientation before Weschler's book came out, but otherwise I'm a Sacks newbie (Awakenings with Robin Williams notwithstanding).
And I really liked this "biographical memoir." It centers around the period in the early 1980s before Sacks became really famous, when Weschler was going to write a profile of him for The New Yorker. Weschler abandoned the project when Sacks asked him to; Sacks was very skittish about being outed as a homosexual. They remained friends until Sacks's death, before which Sacks urged Weschler to continue with the now decades-abandoned project.
Weschler paints the portrait of a complicated person—an imaginative and attentive doctor; a survivor of a traumatic childhood and an amphetamine-fueled twenties and thirties; a clumsy, awkward, ill-kempt bear of a man; a man conflicted by his sexuality, who opted to remain celibate for thirty-five years; a paranoid neurotic, highly self-absorbed; a talented writer. It's all handled with tremendous empathy and insight. I get that Sacks's own writings cover a lot of this ground, and there's magic to hearing it from the horse's mouth, but I also think that self-presentation can obscure things, especially for someone like Sacks.
All this to say: you don't have to be deeply familiar with Sacks to enjoy this wonderfully written, sensitive, and compelling biography. And even if you are, there's value in seeing him rendered by an intimate.
And I really liked this "biographical memoir." It centers around the period in the early 1980s before Sacks became really famous, when Weschler was going to write a profile of him for The New Yorker. Weschler abandoned the project when Sacks asked him to; Sacks was very skittish about being outed as a homosexual. They remained friends until Sacks's death, before which Sacks urged Weschler to continue with the now decades-abandoned project.
Weschler paints the portrait of a complicated person—an imaginative and attentive doctor; a survivor of a traumatic childhood and an amphetamine-fueled twenties and thirties; a clumsy, awkward, ill-kempt bear of a man; a man conflicted by his sexuality, who opted to remain celibate for thirty-five years; a paranoid neurotic, highly self-absorbed; a talented writer. It's all handled with tremendous empathy and insight. I get that Sacks's own writings cover a lot of this ground, and there's magic to hearing it from the horse's mouth, but I also think that self-presentation can obscure things, especially for someone like Sacks.
All this to say: you don't have to be deeply familiar with Sacks to enjoy this wonderfully written, sensitive, and compelling biography. And even if you are, there's value in seeing him rendered by an intimate.
March 28, 2020
Boring! I would rather read a book by Dr. Sacks than a book about him.
September 15, 2020
Oliver Sacks to the author Lawrence Weschler "At my symbolic best, I aspire to Donne, at my conceptual best, to Wittgenstein, but I grant, I get over-Donne" Oliver Sacks was the real neurologist portrayed by Robin Williams in the film Awakenings. Author Lawrence Weschler has written a very worthwhile about Dr. Sacks, his life and his work. I have started to listen to two of Oliver Sacks books on audio but never finished either, not because I wasn't intrigued but because they were long and it takes me a while to listen to a long audio book. A library loan time just wasn't enough time. I will get actual paper copies next try. Sacks was a physician who gave his patients all the time they needed. He was careful and thorough and that doesn't fit with current insurance company driven practices. Oliver Sacks didn't care. In addition to his medical work Sacks led an interesting life. He loved fast motorcycles, often going well over 100 miles an hour on city streets in his younger years. While working in Southern California he took up weight lifting at Muscle Beach and once set the California record for squats lifting 600 pounds. But most importantly he was a dedicated physician and researcher.
There are long books that I can't wait to finish and be done. This was the other kind. I am a bit sad that it is finished. I will miss Oliver, Lawrence and their friends. Now to read On the Move by Oliver Sacks MD himself.
There are long books that I can't wait to finish and be done. This was the other kind. I am a bit sad that it is finished. I will miss Oliver, Lawrence and their friends. Now to read On the Move by Oliver Sacks MD himself.
February 24, 2020
I found I much prefer reading Sacks' books to reading this book about him. The author does a good job of assembling his material and making a story of it, and Sacks had become a dear friend of his. But they are such different people psychologically that it felt as though at times he had trouble entering understandingly into who Sacks was. For example, Weschler has difficulty understanding Sacks' insecurities that a more insecure person would not have had. And of course Sacks was a person of extremes in his life in a way that isn't reflected in his books. 3 stars for my enjoyment, perhaps 4 stars for technical execution.
May 18, 2020
Fascinating subject. I’ve read a couple of Sacks’ books and his own storytelling is such a contrast to seeing how rambling conversations with him could be. Possibly because of this or because of the author’s large gap between starting and finishing the book, I found the book hard to follow at times and found myself skim reading parts to finish.
November 1, 2019
A rare intimate biography by a close friend that grants unprecedented access to a fascinating personality and mind and a monumentally important writer. It starts a little slowly but the last third of the book was especially riveting.
April 17, 2020
I love Dr. Sacks. He was a brilliant and interesting person. This book, however, conveys none of that. Weschler notes that he started the book decades ago and then had to stop, only to pick the book up again later and it reads just like that. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the book because it got very bogged down in the details.
December 31, 2019
2.5 stars.
As I end 2019 I've determined that I should be writing reviews, along with thinking more critically, about the books I read heading into the new year. This inspiration popped during the reading of this book, so even with the lukewarm starring, it had its impacts on my life. Enough about me (editor's note: everything that follows is about me).
As to the book itself, I grabbed this book off of the shelf at the library when noting that Dr. Sacks looked an awful lot like Robin Williams. Turns out he's the doctor from Awakenings and that's some good casting: at least in the looks department. All of this to say, I had no idea who this dude was, and I had never heard of the author before.
So......maybe I'm not the person to rely on for a good review of this book.
Somehow I didn't particularly enjoy the book and also came away looking forward to reading books by Oliver Sacks himself, as well as others by this author. The stilted nature of the writing, in biographical form, never quite landed for me. It's not you, it's me Mr. Weschler.
Still, Weschler's obvious affection for Oliver is quite impactful. I often enjoyed the sections of the book written entirely in his point of view, while never really latching on to much, if any, of the text coming directly from Oliver Sacks.
A powerful story is here to be consumed by someone and that someone was not me. Or was it?
As I end 2019 I've determined that I should be writing reviews, along with thinking more critically, about the books I read heading into the new year. This inspiration popped during the reading of this book, so even with the lukewarm starring, it had its impacts on my life. Enough about me (editor's note: everything that follows is about me).
As to the book itself, I grabbed this book off of the shelf at the library when noting that Dr. Sacks looked an awful lot like Robin Williams. Turns out he's the doctor from Awakenings and that's some good casting: at least in the looks department. All of this to say, I had no idea who this dude was, and I had never heard of the author before.
So......maybe I'm not the person to rely on for a good review of this book.
Somehow I didn't particularly enjoy the book and also came away looking forward to reading books by Oliver Sacks himself, as well as others by this author. The stilted nature of the writing, in biographical form, never quite landed for me. It's not you, it's me Mr. Weschler.
Still, Weschler's obvious affection for Oliver is quite impactful. I often enjoyed the sections of the book written entirely in his point of view, while never really latching on to much, if any, of the text coming directly from Oliver Sacks.
A powerful story is here to be consumed by someone and that someone was not me. Or was it?
October 29, 2019
A beautiful love letter in the form of a biography. Weschler presents a complete portrait of a remarkably endearing, flawed, and apparently always hungry person - a case study of the man who observed the forgotten in a way that was outdated, but was able to capture his subjects perfectly.
I never doubted the veracity of Oliver Sacks' writing. Perhaps this was partly naive of me, but I took his case studies to be his way of making sense of the conundrums/situations/phenomenon he observed. He was making his best guess at the reason why this person's paintings became more abstract may be due to the degeneration of the visual cortex. These postulations are really what science is- what the evidence seems to support, the conclusion that is suggested. Oliver Sacks was able to relate them in gorgeous and inspiring prose. Much as Weschler was able to do, eventually documenting his dear friend in a touching memoir.
I never doubted the veracity of Oliver Sacks' writing. Perhaps this was partly naive of me, but I took his case studies to be his way of making sense of the conundrums/situations/phenomenon he observed. He was making his best guess at the reason why this person's paintings became more abstract may be due to the degeneration of the visual cortex. These postulations are really what science is- what the evidence seems to support, the conclusion that is suggested. Oliver Sacks was able to relate them in gorgeous and inspiring prose. Much as Weschler was able to do, eventually documenting his dear friend in a touching memoir.
January 18, 2020
I was working at the membership desk in the Museum of Natural History in NYC around 2008 when Dr. Sacks came in to renew his membership. This book has made me regret ever more not saying something, not shaking the man's hand, not telling him what an impact he had already made on me at that young age. I know now that the simple gesture would have meant more to him and to me than I ever imagined at the time. This memoir/biography is beautiful, heartfelt, and truly shines a light on the kind of person Dr. Sacks was, beyond the doctor and the writer.
April 9, 2019
I reaceived this copy of And How Are You, Dr. Sacks from Farrar, Straus and Giroux through Netgalley.
The quickest way I can describe this book is an interview and a friendship that spanned over 30 years.
Weschler's affection for Sacks shines through but somehow manages not to come off as a kiss-up.
Chock with fascinating interviews this book is a must read for Sacks fans.
The quickest way I can describe this book is an interview and a friendship that spanned over 30 years.
Weschler's affection for Sacks shines through but somehow manages not to come off as a kiss-up.
Chock with fascinating interviews this book is a must read for Sacks fans.
August 26, 2020
I would like to be able to sit down with Dr. Oliver Sacks for about four hours to talk about so many things. OK, so it would take more than four hours.
Fascinating back story on a neurologist who considered the human brain the most incredible thing in the universe.
Fascinating back story on a neurologist who considered the human brain the most incredible thing in the universe.
August 11, 2024
I am not going to organize these thoughts into a whole: Sacks was becoming such a hero in my mind, it was just sad to hear of how neurotic he was--and not from his own perspective, which can account for any behavior through a kind of romance. (Isn't an essential part of this kind of neurosis a fatally rational ability to talk and reassure oneself, explain oneself too well for one's own good?) The idea that Sacks confabulates some or gets some people wrong--has some kind of persecution complex--really siphoned a lot of air out of the balloon for me.
Weschler comes across as pretentious and overly invovled, or maybe the pretentiousness is a joke, but the self-absorption intermixed and made it seem serious, and the two combined produced a fouler mixture than either was alone.
This covers much of the same ground as On the Move, in fact sometimes the overlap seems excessive, and on top of that Weschler has the audacity to include these unedited conversations... it came across as I guess lazy and haphazard, like Weschler was making excuses, when in fact the prope remedy was to not publish this. He's too smart for low-quality work, I guess; if he were a worse or less knowledgeable writer somehow I would mind less, or something else about the context: Sacks begged him to write something at the end of his [Sack's] life, but in fact what he had didn't merit it....
Of course I love Sacks so much, his love of Luria, Darwin and Freud... his love of Wittgenstein.
Strange (fitting? right?) that I hadn't heard of Sacks' hatred of computers, his ongoing 'implicit' criticism of computers and scientism... (Of course I like these things) But he came across as more ridiculous, pathetic, unreliable in this portrait than I would have wished... Always quick to add that he's a genius, everyone is, but that's not what the book is about. Always this project or that....
How I would love to be a biographer....
Weschler comes across as pretentious and overly invovled, or maybe the pretentiousness is a joke, but the self-absorption intermixed and made it seem serious, and the two combined produced a fouler mixture than either was alone.
This covers much of the same ground as On the Move, in fact sometimes the overlap seems excessive, and on top of that Weschler has the audacity to include these unedited conversations... it came across as I guess lazy and haphazard, like Weschler was making excuses, when in fact the prope remedy was to not publish this. He's too smart for low-quality work, I guess; if he were a worse or less knowledgeable writer somehow I would mind less, or something else about the context: Sacks begged him to write something at the end of his [Sack's] life, but in fact what he had didn't merit it....
Of course I love Sacks so much, his love of Luria, Darwin and Freud... his love of Wittgenstein.
Strange (fitting? right?) that I hadn't heard of Sacks' hatred of computers, his ongoing 'implicit' criticism of computers and scientism... (Of course I like these things) But he came across as more ridiculous, pathetic, unreliable in this portrait than I would have wished... Always quick to add that he's a genius, everyone is, but that's not what the book is about. Always this project or that....
How I would love to be a biographer....
November 20, 2020
Lawrence Weschler, whom Dr. Oliver Sacks calls "Ren", is the dispassionate observer, watching the enormous capacity Oliver had to live and experience the life force, in all kinds of creatures, in the midst of diseases and in the midst of cures. He struggled with making sense of his own self, for the longest time - but was sincerely engaged all along, in a terrific storm of experiencing it all!!
- Some example:
"On Megrin, Sick-Headache, and Some Allied Disorders: A Contribution to the Pathology of Nerve-Storms."
- "… I was taken into a realm of enchantment: I read through the six hundred pages in one sitting as if at a single glance! The whole subject opened up before me as a great firmament, the firmament of neurology, with - crystal clear - the constellation of migrane. The landscape of migraine." - p. 76
Here is a an excerpt of another influence in Dr. Sacks life, Luria - NEUROPHYSIOLOGY AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGY:
"…. The body is a unity of action - since for others it's just a mass of tissues - and that which is cut off from the unity of action is unbodied… he suggested becoming a geographer, astronomer of the mind… There was a great aesthetic feeling for truth in him as well, and for reality. He melts, at times, at the beauty of things. He had a feeling for the sublime - beyond the beautiful. Medicine, in general, pitches its work well below the sublime, but it needn't have to. And Luria showed the way, though he would never have used a word like sublime - …" - p. 120
- Some example:
"On Megrin, Sick-Headache, and Some Allied Disorders: A Contribution to the Pathology of Nerve-Storms."
- "… I was taken into a realm of enchantment: I read through the six hundred pages in one sitting as if at a single glance! The whole subject opened up before me as a great firmament, the firmament of neurology, with - crystal clear - the constellation of migrane. The landscape of migraine." - p. 76
Here is a an excerpt of another influence in Dr. Sacks life, Luria - NEUROPHYSIOLOGY AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGY:
"…. The body is a unity of action - since for others it's just a mass of tissues - and that which is cut off from the unity of action is unbodied… he suggested becoming a geographer, astronomer of the mind… There was a great aesthetic feeling for truth in him as well, and for reality. He melts, at times, at the beauty of things. He had a feeling for the sublime - beyond the beautiful. Medicine, in general, pitches its work well below the sublime, but it needn't have to. And Luria showed the way, though he would never have used a word like sublime - …" - p. 120
March 12, 2022
Overall, truly a character study in the highest regard. Weschler pulls on years of knowing Sacks and scores of notes and conversations to form a very human portrait of a great man. At many times I found myself relating to Sacks' neuroses which was as heartening as it was strange given the chasm of life experience between us.
Unfortunately, this was not a complete slam dunk for me, though my pieces of criticism are relatively mild. The first is that this book could have used a bit more editing in my opinion. While I appreciated the breadth of sources consulted, at times you would be regaled with the same stories out of different mouths which bloated the book a touch. In addition, reading this very soon after Everything In Its Place by Sacks was a bit misguided on my part because some of the stories Sacks tells are the same, lending to a further feeling of repetition where there was none.
The second was that Weschler seemed fixated on Sacks sexuality, pushing Sacks to be "honest" about it and seeing it as central to the whole "story arc" of the memoir. For all I know as an outsider, that could have been a completely correct evaluation of the situation. However, it still made for somewhat uncomfortable reading as someone who intimately knows the complexity of queer identification and coming out.
Unfortunately, this was not a complete slam dunk for me, though my pieces of criticism are relatively mild. The first is that this book could have used a bit more editing in my opinion. While I appreciated the breadth of sources consulted, at times you would be regaled with the same stories out of different mouths which bloated the book a touch. In addition, reading this very soon after Everything In Its Place by Sacks was a bit misguided on my part because some of the stories Sacks tells are the same, lending to a further feeling of repetition where there was none.
The second was that Weschler seemed fixated on Sacks sexuality, pushing Sacks to be "honest" about it and seeing it as central to the whole "story arc" of the memoir. For all I know as an outsider, that could have been a completely correct evaluation of the situation. However, it still made for somewhat uncomfortable reading as someone who intimately knows the complexity of queer identification and coming out.
August 5, 2023
This book was just so well-written that I read it in awe, like an aspiring science writer who's actually more concerned with stories about human lives and with recording voices of patients who might not have made it, if it hadn’t been for some brilliant unorthodox weirdo in the right place at the right time. I’m more concerned with history than with just science-themed trivia (I thought of Kay Redfield Jameson and her great writing about medicine). That might make me different from a lot of readers, but I doubt it.
That would also explain why I've looked up to Oliver Sacks. He's the king of a kind of science-writing that gets in there like a great artist or like someone who could have been. What And How Are You, Dr. Sacks? might have done differently from other work by Oliver Sacks (and as an aside, sometimes I even found New Yorker writer Lawrence Weschler, the author's, writing better than Sacks' own writing e.g. in Sacks' book Hallucinations) was that its portrayal of Sacks gave a very intimate backdrop of what might go into this doctor's philosophy and treatment style, including his weirdass quirks that made him both a legendary doctor and completely lovable man. However we must keep in mind this was a real-life human, not some paragon of human perfection. Oliver was gay in his field; I always like books about someone who was gay in a field (like '70s medicine!) that didn't necessarily embrace that. I actually didn't even know Oliver Sacks was gay, which sort of gets at anything that just wasn't written down.
It might even have explained Oliver's success. But there wasn't as much discussion of his anguish as of his success, and plenty about his interest in the poet Thom Gunn. Oliver's sexuality could have been the push that broke his back, or his leg if we’re referring to his suicidal-seeming accident involving a wild bull that destroyed him physically. I doubt any lies by omission were the fault of Lawrence Weschler; more just about Weschler lacking that perspective.
So anyway, I'm failing as a low-key critic, presently, by dwelling on what's irrelevant. This book was actually really good and I highly recommend it. I just know that medicine is a weird field for intimacy, with patients, with one's work, then with loved ones, and it's the part I felt I wanted more of: what in the hell actually happened that drove him to become a genius doctor, besides that he had an awful time in boarding school. Maybe that was it. It just sounded like a book written by a very smart man, not Oliver for once - a man who happened to be his close friend - and Oliver Sacks was such a kook that I wanted more, more. Literally what an incredible person.
Continuing on a self-centered note... what I took from it particularly from the chapters that talked about his connection (from the movie based on Oliver's Awakenings) to Robin Williams, my favorite comedian, was that Oliver was just a brilliant, tremendously loving person - and that inspired me to just help a lot of people in my lifetime by hitting my marks; honestly Robin’s and Oliver’s approach to helping others sounds similar, in that it’s about being a funny or fucking nice person who people trust in the face of such darkness that most people would just succumb to it and die. It’s just that they each suffered a lot. In the way of flaws, the book seemed scattered and didn't read well from start to finish. I didn't mind because it took me forever to read it, but it's more like a flip-through collection - find the chapter you want and just skip the rest (maybe if you’re an educator assigning a reading) - than a cogent narrative for people like me who purchased the paperback.
That would also explain why I've looked up to Oliver Sacks. He's the king of a kind of science-writing that gets in there like a great artist or like someone who could have been. What And How Are You, Dr. Sacks? might have done differently from other work by Oliver Sacks (and as an aside, sometimes I even found New Yorker writer Lawrence Weschler, the author's, writing better than Sacks' own writing e.g. in Sacks' book Hallucinations) was that its portrayal of Sacks gave a very intimate backdrop of what might go into this doctor's philosophy and treatment style, including his weirdass quirks that made him both a legendary doctor and completely lovable man. However we must keep in mind this was a real-life human, not some paragon of human perfection. Oliver was gay in his field; I always like books about someone who was gay in a field (like '70s medicine!) that didn't necessarily embrace that. I actually didn't even know Oliver Sacks was gay, which sort of gets at anything that just wasn't written down.
It might even have explained Oliver's success. But there wasn't as much discussion of his anguish as of his success, and plenty about his interest in the poet Thom Gunn. Oliver's sexuality could have been the push that broke his back, or his leg if we’re referring to his suicidal-seeming accident involving a wild bull that destroyed him physically. I doubt any lies by omission were the fault of Lawrence Weschler; more just about Weschler lacking that perspective.
So anyway, I'm failing as a low-key critic, presently, by dwelling on what's irrelevant. This book was actually really good and I highly recommend it. I just know that medicine is a weird field for intimacy, with patients, with one's work, then with loved ones, and it's the part I felt I wanted more of: what in the hell actually happened that drove him to become a genius doctor, besides that he had an awful time in boarding school. Maybe that was it. It just sounded like a book written by a very smart man, not Oliver for once - a man who happened to be his close friend - and Oliver Sacks was such a kook that I wanted more, more. Literally what an incredible person.
Continuing on a self-centered note... what I took from it particularly from the chapters that talked about his connection (from the movie based on Oliver's Awakenings) to Robin Williams, my favorite comedian, was that Oliver was just a brilliant, tremendously loving person - and that inspired me to just help a lot of people in my lifetime by hitting my marks; honestly Robin’s and Oliver’s approach to helping others sounds similar, in that it’s about being a funny or fucking nice person who people trust in the face of such darkness that most people would just succumb to it and die. It’s just that they each suffered a lot. In the way of flaws, the book seemed scattered and didn't read well from start to finish. I didn't mind because it took me forever to read it, but it's more like a flip-through collection - find the chapter you want and just skip the rest (maybe if you’re an educator assigning a reading) - than a cogent narrative for people like me who purchased the paperback.
August 11, 2025
Dr. Sacks' writings are some of my favorite on the planet. In addition to the neurological studies he has written, I have also read his autobiography and his farewell. In this book, Weschler sets out to write a biography, spending time with Sacks, friends, colleagues, and family to get a complete picture. The wonder is that this relationship with Sacks began before anyone had ever heard of him outside of medical circles. It was before Awakenings.
Sacks comes across as he did in his own writings, curious, intelligent, perceptive, compassionate. Weschler also details another side of Sacks--depressed, uncertain, wracked by self-doubt. But the two men enjoy a decades-long friendship, and judging by their vocabularies, they were meant for each other. Sacks, for example, says that a negative review obnubilated the pleasure of publication.
An enjoyable read in spite of the number of words I had to look up. Glad to be using an ebook so the dictionary is there at the touch of the word.
Sacks comes across as he did in his own writings, curious, intelligent, perceptive, compassionate. Weschler also details another side of Sacks--depressed, uncertain, wracked by self-doubt. But the two men enjoy a decades-long friendship, and judging by their vocabularies, they were meant for each other. Sacks, for example, says that a negative review obnubilated the pleasure of publication.
An enjoyable read in spite of the number of words I had to look up. Glad to be using an ebook so the dictionary is there at the touch of the word.
May 9, 2023
I'm undecided on what to write about this. I suppose biographies are not my preferred genre after all but I thought since Oliver Sacks is someone I admire (his books on his exceptional patients are truly one of a kind), I would naturally like a biography of his life too. But the author, as mentioned in several other reviews, dwelled too much on their relationship with each other rather than Oliver Sacks. Besides, the approach of directly relaying conversations (esp, with conversations with Oliver who skips one topic only to come back to it later several days later) only serves the purpose of confusing the reader rather than give an "authentic slice of life" as the author probably intended.
All in all, it was a struggle to get through. I've been holding onto this book for a long while now.
All in all, it was a struggle to get through. I've been holding onto this book for a long while now.
October 18, 2019
Now this is a very good book. There are words used by the writer that I had to find the meanings for in order to understand what I was reading: I like that in a book as it stretches my mind and understanding.
Sacks was no ordinary person, complex is an understatement, brilliant is also an understatement. His life’s story is well described with intimate respect and honesty. I have read lots of books on brain science, philosophy and psychology and Sacks gets mentioned now and then. So I was finally glad to meet him through a good book: one with a trustworthy agenda. The postscript underlies this agenda.
Towards the very end of my reading I realised I could now approach his books with a better sense of the context that led to their creation.
Sacks was no ordinary person, complex is an understatement, brilliant is also an understatement. His life’s story is well described with intimate respect and honesty. I have read lots of books on brain science, philosophy and psychology and Sacks gets mentioned now and then. So I was finally glad to meet him through a good book: one with a trustworthy agenda. The postscript underlies this agenda.
Towards the very end of my reading I realised I could now approach his books with a better sense of the context that led to their creation.
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