Rating: 
Summary: An unusual cross between case study and diary
Review: Sacks has made his reputation by writing insightfully about his patients and their neurological disorders. Most readers will come to this book after having read one of his better known collections, such as "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", though in fact I believe this precedes all of them except "Awakenings". "A Leg to Stand On" has much in common with those books, but it is much more personal, and it tells a unified story.The first chapter, "The Mountain", tells how Sacks suffered a terrible injury to his left leg while hiking high above Hardanger Fjord in Norway. He was alone, and nobody knew where he was; he would certainly die of exposure if he didn't reach help by nightfall. The chapter is as gripping as anything in a thriller, and much more believable. The next chapter, however, "Becoming A Patient", is the one that will give readers of Sacks' other work a frisson of recognition. Many times Sacks has taken the reader through the doctor-patient relationship from the doctor's side, but now he must experience it from the patient's side, and it is a revealing chapter. It ends with an extraordinary transition: Sacks has realized that he has a neurological problem with his leg--he can't "locate" it; it feels like it's made of wood--but the surgeon who operated on him refuses, point-blank, to accept that there is a problem. The remainder of the book--about half--is devoted to the path to Sacks' ultimate recovery. Sacks has deep powers of observation, and there are luminously informative sequences here--my favourite is perhaps the exchange with the physiotherapists, when they are trying to show him how to walk, but he has forgotten how. The book closes with a chapter of musings on the nature of Sacks' experience and its relationship with his work. This is a thoughtful book, and a good introduction to Sacks' work, but I think readers of Sacks' other books will like it the most.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This book is an outstanding analysis of the doctor as patient, especially in the realm of neuropathology. It is also an interesting chunk of autobiography for people who are curious about Oliver Sacks' life beyond patients.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This book is an outstanding analysis of the doctor as patient, especially in the realm of neuropathology. It is also an interesting chunk of autobiography for people who are curious about Oliver Sacks' life beyond patients.
Rating:
Summary: ... here Sacks walks (or limps?) his talk ...
Review: Those who gave this book a negative review have probably never understood up-close the nature of severe neurological problems. Moreover, they must have failed in their reading of his other books to recognize Oliver Sacks' consistent respect, fascination, sensitivity, and intellectual humility when dealing with the neurological complexities of his patients. Here he IS the patient. In other words, this book is operating on several levels, and Sacks is now not only identifying at a clinical distance with what others experience but he is inside the neuro-beast himself and describing with great literary power and sensitivity the horrific inner struggles of that subjective experience! In my opinion, the only Sacks book better than this one is The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Sacks is a master storyteller, and A Leg to Stand On is one unique story. No, it's not strictly a neurologist's textbook analysis, but here Sacks walks (or limps?) his talk.
| 
