Rating: 
Summary: Sacks seeking symptoms
Review: A practicing physician, Sacks conveys us on a journey through Pacific islands. He introduces
us to some bizarre afflictions. The nature of these illness isn't unusual, but the circumstances
on these archipelagoes is bizarre. The cause and mechanism of spread is revealed by none of
the investigations they've been subjected to up to now. Genetics, nutritional practices, habitat
have all been subject to scrutiny. None have imparted clear root causes for the colour
blindness on Pingelap/Pohnpei or nervous disorders on Guam. Both disorders,
achromotopia and lytico-bodig are types of afflictions Sacks has dealt with during his years in
practice. Both have varying manifestations, making diagnosis difficult. The colour blindness
carries other symptoms, sensitivity to bright light and loss of acuity. Reading may be difficult
for some ailing victims. The lytico-bodig on Guam is particularly difficult, since the
symptoms may not become apparent for generations. Sacks joins local doctors in examining
the patients and recounting the research.In assessing the symptoms and the environments, Sacks also conveys a sensitive rendering of
the islands' histories and current situations. Whalers, missionaries and the U.S. Navy have
brought plagues, displaced the inhabitants and ignored their impacts. Indigenous
populations have been decimated by diseases introduced by Europeans and North
Americans. It's an old, wearying story, but it must be told with honesty and perception.
Sacks does just that, with deep human feeling that makes this book captivating reading.
There's few things as frightening as a latent illness that seems to strike at whim. Since "bugs"
or even genetic origins aren't easily discerned in these cases, it makes the physician's task that
much more exacting. Sacks keeps the reader at his side with finesse as he tours the islands,
examines the suffering and describes the efforts to counter the misery. It's a call for others to
take up the challenge, and he offers tools in the massive notes and bibliography. It's a
challenge worth pursuing. Anyone entering medicine will find this book valuable. For the
rest of us, it's an inspirational volume, well told, with valuable insight to a dedicated doctor's
experiences.
Rating:
Summary: See Through Sacks' Eyes
Review: As this book confirms, the characteristic of Sacks which endears him to readers the most is his love for humanity: he is capable of discovering and describing beauty in any person, no matter how seemingly disturbed, disfigured, or impaired.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: Having read all of Dr. Sacks previous books, I was looking forward to an enthralling tale. But this book is so disjointed and rambling. It's all fluff and hardly any meat. It could have been expanded and written as four good books: one totally about the Island of the Colorblind; one totally about Cycads; one totally about the neurological disease bodig on Guam; and the final one containing all of Dr. Sacks' trivia about the Pacific Islands. Jumping back and forth between the story and the voluminous notes was irritating, and the notes, while interesting, were not especially necessary for the most part. The good doctor does not go as indepth as he has in his previous books and this is sorely missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Anthropology and Neurology Meet in Micronesia
Review: Having thoroughly enjoyed 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' I opted to make this my second Dr. Sacks outing. Once again the good doctor provides compelling, humane, interesting stories about odd physiological conditions and the cultures that foster and contend with them. In multiple episodes that have him traveling to small volcanic islands in Micronesia, the entertaining neurologist studies a group of people who have been born without the ability to see color. Accompanying him is a Nordic specialist in this genetic trait, and one who also happens to share the same condition. As the troupe moves about the islands, they meet and talk with the achromatopes; the natives and Knut evince a feeling of camaraderie. Dr. Sacks plumbs their depths to hear them describe their world in terms of textures and monochrome shades, completely barren of color. Along the way, he experiences a taste of their 'night' lives, the skills they have developed to compensate for their lack of color sight. The next topic in the island hopping takes them to Guam where Sacks sees the patients of an associate who suffer from lytico-bodig, a degenerative condition which causes paralysis [not unlike Dr. Sacks' own neurological patients] and eventual dissolution. Having struck only a certain age bracket on the islands, the mysterious disease has confounded science for almost four decades and has almost killed off its victims. Finally, he treks to Rota to walk among the ancient Cycad plants that have captured his imagination since childhood. This novel appealed to the adventurer's spirit while I was reading it, listening to Dr. Sacks describes the beauty of the island culture and the supremely languid pace of life. Dr. Sacks' writing is not only aesthetically entertaining, but his case studies continue to pique the interest of the intellect. However, one is never so bowled over by the beauty of the surroundings as to forget the real human cases being presented. It is indeed an odd combination, this beauty and tragedy, but one that works very well in this novel producing an enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Anthropology and Neurology Meet in Micronesia
Review: Having thoroughly enjoyed `The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' I opted to make this my second Dr. Sacks outing. Once again the good doctor provides compelling, humane, interesting stories about odd physiological conditions and the cultures that foster and contend with them. In multiple episodes that have him traveling to small volcanic islands in Micronesia, the entertaining neurologist studies a group of people who have been born without the ability to see color. Accompanying him is a Nordic specialist in this genetic trait, and one who also happens to share the same condition. As the troupe moves about the islands, they meet and talk with the achromatopes; the natives and Knut evince a feeling of camaraderie. Dr. Sacks plumbs their depths to hear them describe their world in terms of textures and monochrome shades, completely barren of color. Along the way, he experiences a taste of their `night' lives, the skills they have developed to compensate for their lack of color sight. The next topic in the island hopping takes them to Guam where Sacks sees the patients of an associate who suffer from lytico-bodig, a degenerative condition which causes paralysis [not unlike Dr. Sacks' own neurological patients] and eventual dissolution. Having struck only a certain age bracket on the islands, the mysterious disease has confounded science for almost four decades and has almost killed off its victims. Finally, he treks to Rota to walk among the ancient Cycad plants that have captured his imagination since childhood. This novel appealed to the adventurer's spirit while I was reading it, listening to Dr. Sacks describes the beauty of the island culture and the supremely languid pace of life. Dr. Sacks' writing is not only aesthetically entertaining, but his case studies continue to pique the interest of the intellect. However, one is never so bowled over by the beauty of the surroundings as to forget the real human cases being presented. It is indeed an odd combination, this beauty and tragedy, but one that works very well in this novel producing an enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating...the best of Sacks
Review: I adore the quirkiness of Oliver Sacks. Such a multifaceted individual...neurologist, botanist, world-traveller, musically talented, and a bona-fide eccentric of the best kind. I have read nearly all of his books and this is one of the best. My biggest fault with Sacks is that he can drone on about minutiae in the middle of a scintillating story and lose the interest of his readers. I love a good detailed medical story, and I don't have ADD or anything, but I skipped through many pages of "An Anthropologist on Mars", in spite of the great stories in that book. In *this* book he keeps the tale lively and doesn't lapse into stupefying detail. It's full of juicy tidbits from a variety of areas: the history and anthropology of the peoples of the Pacific islands, personal anecdotes of the people he meets, a delightful travelogue, descriptions of beautiful ferns and cycad forests, adventure, mystery... Main story #1: The genetically color-blind people of a small Pacific island. How did they get to be that way? What is it like to live on a small primitive island in a village of color-blind people? Main story #2: What caused the majority of the population of Guam in the early part of this century to fall ill with a mysterious Parkinsonian-like disease that in some cases wiped out entire families? Oh, and here's the rub...this disease has now almost disappeared. Could it be the cycads? Or not?
Rating:
Summary: Not Sacks' best, but inspiring & enjoyable
Review: I had not read Sacks before and was laid up in the Peninsula hospital in Burlingame. This book was lingering on the shelf at home and I had my wife bring it to me. Soon the beige walls and IV tubes dissapeared and I was fighting the humidity of the tropical south pacific. This book reads like a travelogue, a report on achromatopsia (congenital colorblindness), the lytico-bodig (an alzheimers/parkinsons like condition), and the fern-like batonical oddity of cycad trees, among other things. The description of the ruins of Nan Madol was awesome. Where one reviewer found this literary style to be 'rambling,' I found it to be deliciously lazy and ambling. Sacks employs the device of digression with a pace that sort of stones you. Maybe this motif was influenced by the kava Sacks took on Pohnpei. In any event, the book opens by delving into the congenital malady of acute colorblindness known as achromatopsia. Sacks learns of a little micronesian island with a large population of sufferers and follows his nose there with a couple of buddies, one of who is himself achromatopic. Soon we are on a small plane island hoping our way to the tiny atoll called Pingelap. You can virtually feel the tropical breeze reaching up your shorts. The description of achromatopsia is excellent. One almost imagines oneself as colorblind, seeing the world in a new perspective. Indeed, the light sensitive achromatopics here are often employed as night fishermen due to the advantage of their sensitive night vision, to catch flying fish in the phosphorescent waters of the warm Pacific. Sacks' attitude toward pathology is most admirable. He truly sees the afflicted as no more or less than whole people with differences, not partial or disfunctional people that are not normal. All of the afflicted in this book are examined respectfully and equitably as functional, whole, living organisms instead of sick and inferior. Geniune pathos appears where warranted but never condescendingly. Next we're off to the volcanic island of Pohnpei and the megalithic ruins that remind us these islands "were once the seat of monumental civilizations." More achromatopics are encountered here, along with the acculturational clash between these Pacific island cultures, a collection of population bottlenecks colonized by Southeastern Asians, and Europeans. We visit the rainforest and encounter delicate, endemic, flourescent ferns, and forests of sakau, the local psychopharmacological substance of choice. Then it's off to Guam to study the neurological disorder called the lytico-bodig of mysterious etiology. The island practice of consuming the toxic seeds of local cycad trees is supected as a cause of this condition, but it is unclear if it's caused by the eating of paste made from cycad tree seeds or is genetic in origin, as it seems to run in families. Sacks reaches into his experience with encephalitis induced coma patients and L-DOPA treatment in exploring the lytico-bodig. We also meet up with the ecological tsunami of the brown, tree-climbing snake which has consumed all the birds on Guam. The last island is Guam's small neighbor Rota, where islanders take Sacks into the jungle in search of cycads, where we also find the leafless Psilotum nudum, whose ancestor was "the first plants to develope a vascular system, to free themselves from the need to live in water." Also visited are giant land crabs with claws powerful enough to open coconuts. Maybe it's because I was trapped in a hospital, but I thoroughly enjoyed this travelogue, investigative science, and wistful reminiscence of the biological and cultural underpinnings that have brought us to this place in the present.
Rating:
Summary: Not Sacks' best, but inspiring & enjoyable
Review: In between visiting terminally ill patients, Dr. Sacks goes snorkeling and hiking through tropical rainforests in the Micronesian islands, sharing his thoughts and experiences with his readers.
About one quarter of the book is footnotes.
I enjoyed "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" a lot more.
(If English isn't your mother tongue or if you're not a college graduate I suggest you have a good dictionary nearby as you read. It also helps to look up some of the diseases he talks about at Yahoo! Health. Also look for images of the flora he discusses at Google Image Search.)
Rating:
Summary: A Sense Of Wonder
Review: Oliver Sacks is able to convey his sense of wonder about the compexities of nature in such a way as to pass that wonderment and curiosity to the reader. In "Island of the Colorblind" he reveals the potential strangeness and uniqueness of life on islands. He describes how islands, by their very nature, isolate life-forms which develop unique strains of animals or plants. Islands are protected from the forces occuring on large land masses and species adapt in their own way. The Pacific atoll of Pineglap, unknown to me before, is inhabited by islanders born totally colorblind. Guam is inhabited by an inordinate number of people with the neurodegenerative disease, ALS. Merely being aware of these mysteries reinforces the feeling of humility in the midst of natural forces we feel so inadequate to fully understand. If you want to be reminded of the curiosity and sense of wonder you had as a child, savor Oliver Sack's work.
Rating:
Summary: A book of beauty
Review: Oliver Sacks' writing is very evocative. It combines the scientific and the artistic. The book was possible because that essential element of science was there - curiosity. At the same time there is adventure and romance. Sacks also brings out the fact good physicians are necessarily good humans, and have interests outside medicine. The book has descriptions of people suffering from hereditary complete colour blindness and of the lytico-bodig (the Guam disease), which are clear and allow one to empathize. One need not be a doctor to understand them, just as one need not be a natural historian to understand cycads. In Guam Dr. Sacks visits John Steele, a man who left a brilliant academic career to be an "island GP." That men like Steele exist reaffirms one's faith in medicine. The book left me with the feeling that it was time for me to pack my bags and leave for some similar enlightening adventure.
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