Product Description

Oliver Sacks travels once again in search of human diversity, to the South Pacific atoll of Pingelap, where he finds that a high proportion of the population is colourblind and investigates the causes and effects of that condition. This book explores the islands, the people and their case studies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157426 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From the Publisher
Observant and moving botanical and neurological odyssey
Always fascinated by islands, Oliver Sacks found himself drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by reports of an isolated community born totally colour-blind. He set up a small clinic and listened to the achromatopic islanders describe their colourless world in rich terms of pattern and tone. And on Guam, where he went to investigate a puzzling endemic neurodegenerative paralysis, he made housecalls in the jungles of primitive cycad trees. The cycads reawakened his lifelong passion for botany, and became starting points for his reflections on the dissemination of the species, the genesis of disease and the nature of deep geologic time. "A testament of tenacity, courage and will" Anthony Clare; "He is a wonderfully acute observer, as well as being a biologist, neurologist, botanist and snorkeller...highly engaging" Anthony Storr, Sunday Times; "A superb clinician who can take a seemingly arid and obscure medical condition, and convert it into a moving, personal odyssey" Anthony Clare, Literary Review

Customer Reviews

Diversity of essays
This was described as two books in one but there seemed like at least three strands to the subject matter. In fact the chapters were broken down into four long chapters; the first two tell of the indigenous peoples predisposition to a rare type of genetic colour blindness. Sacks travels with a western colleage who also has this condition along with expert knowledge.

The third (mammoth) chapter was unexpected from the title which is the chief reason why I didn't rate this book more highly. As a neurologist, Sacks cannot resist the temptation here to launch into a huge digression of a further medical curiosity peculiar to the islands (a disease/s of the brain, often affecting the rest of the body with time.) Sacks is expert here and writes competently, but this was not the story I bought the book for. If you like neurology stories, another of his books (the man who mistook his wife for a hat) is recommended.

Finally, the last and smallest chapter (around 20 pages), was devoted soley to the natural history of one of the islands (where prehistoric plants abound). This chapter lucidly communicated the depths of time, which was excellent reading. The extensive notes at the end were also well worth a read.