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The Island of the Colorblind

by Oliver Sacks (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 1,561 ratings · 105 reviews

From the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars comes "a delightful inner and outer journey, destined to surprise and please the devoted Sacks reader" (Washington Post) - a work rich in curiosity and compassion and intellectual adventure.

Paperback, 311 pages

Published January 12th 1998 by Vintage (first published 1997)

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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Best Science Books - Non-Fiction Only

160th out of 594 books — 1,306 voters

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

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May 04, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-1990s, true-story-bro, shrinky-and-the-brain, reviewed, weird-science

what if you couldn't see in color?

there is a rare disorder called achromatopsia in which an individual is born without functional cones. in a healthy eye, cones are used for color/daytime vision and rods are used for grayscale/night vision. individuals afflicted with achromatopsia only have rods. there are many other problems associated with achromatopsia as well, such as eye twitching, poor visual acuity, and extreme sensitivity to sunlight. luckily, this disorder affects only 1/30,000 people.

i...more

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May 01, 2011 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I've loved Oliver Sacks for a long time, but up until now I'd only read and re-read The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. The Island of the Colorblind seemed like a natural next choice for me, because it combines my interest in neuropsychology with my interest in island biogeography (the study of the way species on islands evolve to become very specialized, to the point where an extremely high percentage of the species on any given island may be endemic to that pa...more I've loved Oliver Sacks for a long time, but up until now I'd only read and re-read The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. The Island of the Colorblind seemed like a natural next choice for me, because it combines my interest in neuropsychology with my interest in island biogeography (the study of the way species on islands evolve to become very specialized, to the point where an extremely high percentage of the species on any given island may be endemic to that particular island). The Island of the Colorblind actually contains two separate but closely related books of about 100 pages each, the first being the titular story, and a second called "Cycad Island." (The book also contains nearly another 100 pages of endnotes.)

As Sacks says in the opening line of the Preface, "This book is really two books, independent narratives of two parallel but independent journeys to Micronesia." In "The Island of the Colorblind," he visits Pingelap and Pohnpei, two neighboring islands, to study the unusually high incidence of achromatopsia, or total colorblindness. As one comes to expect from Sacks, the text not only explores the condition and its effects on individuals and society, but also revels in the botany, zoology, and history of the islands themselves. Sacks is openly fascinated with so many facets of the world that it's hard not to share his excitement, and "The Island of the Colorblind" is a delight to read.

The first half of "Cycad Island" picks up where "The Island of the Colorblind" left off - this time Sacks is visiting Guam to study a mysterious disease known as lytico-bodig. While this disease shows similarities to a number of other diseases, including Parkinson's, it appears to be a separate condition which exists only on Guam and some of its surrounding islands (and its cause and treatment, at least to the time of Sacks's writing, remain unknown). However, mid-way through "Cycad Island", the focus of the text shifts abruptly from his previous admixture of medicine, biology, and history to a strict discussion of cycads (a kind of primitive plant resembling ferns and palm trees). While cycads are closely related to his discussion of lytico-bodig (it has been suggested that the disease could be caused by toxins in the plants, since cycads are favored foods of the Chamorros people of Guam), the change in focus is abrupt, and the singlemindedness of his discussion does not reflect the charm of Sacks's usual diversity of interests, and for the most part becomes quite dry.

I love Oliver Sacks and I'd heartily recommend reading anything of his. However, the sudden change in focus three-quarters of the way through The Island of the Colorblind kills the momentum of what is otherwise a delightful book. Also, the extensive use of notes in this text make it hard to follow the story well - either you ignore them (which I appear to be unable to do), or you stop every few paragraphs to read a full-page digression at the back of the book. It seems that Sacks was allowed to wax somewhat overindulgent in this book, and for this reason I wouldn't suggest it as the first place to visit Sacks's writing, although it's well worth a read if you already know and enjoy his other works.(less)

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May 05, 2010 Danna rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first time since using Goodreads that I've stepped beyond my stated purpose and logged a book I read before starting my Goodreads list but haven't re-read afresh prior to posting a review. Given the fascinating books I've been reading lately, I'm moved to share with fellow readers how glad I am of the serendipitous occasion back in the mid 1990s when I discovered this gem while clerking for the public library. Idle curiosity led me to check it out; little did I know at the time that...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

2009 #42: This book is by Oliver Sacks, a neurologist who also wrote the non-fiction book Awakenings that the Robert DeNiro & Robbin Williams book is based on. The first half of the book is a study of a group of natives to islands in the Pacific where around 10% of the population is colorblind. It is more than just a neurological picture of them, it is also a cultural picture of how these people cope with their sight issues. Sacks does a great job of drawing you into the story of this group...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Wanda rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is mainly a more or less ill-informed travelogue by a person interested in neurological diseases. The core of the book is Sacks' visit to Guam in the 1990s to check out Lytico-Bodig disease, an ALS-like disease once endemic on this island.
Alas, there's not much to the book. Sacks relates a bit about the research of others and his visits to patients with the disease who are under the care of Dr. John C. Steele.
I say ill-informed travelogue because his knowledge of Guam and the other islands...more This is mainly a more or less ill-informed travelogue by a person interested in neurological diseases. The core of the book is Sacks' visit to Guam in the 1990s to check out Lytico-Bodig disease, an ALS-like disease once endemic on this island.
Alas, there's not much to the book. Sacks relates a bit about the research of others and his visits to patients with the disease who are under the care of Dr. John C. Steele.
I say ill-informed travelogue because his knowledge of Guam and the other islands he visits seems limited. For example, he relates a garbled history of the village of Sumay. He doesn't seem to know that it was the site of a US Navy installation as well as the Marine Corps barracks before World War Two, or that it was also the site of the Pan American hotel and other PAA facilities, where the old flying-boat Pan American clippers docked. He seems to believe Sumay was a pristine Chamorro village in those days, which it most certainly was not.
Also, Sacks' attitude to the military seems rather silly, a relic of the hippy-dippy sixties and sticking it to the man mentality. And he doesn't get that the coral in the waters adjacent to the Navy base are healthier because access is restricted. If the Navy let all the locals and tourists in, the corals would be severely degraded. I can't help thinking Sacks can't be much of a scientist if he doesn't grasp that fact.
On top of that, these days it is the US Navy that is protecting and preserving the threatened cycads that Sacks is so enamored with. If the Navy had left Guam all those still-undeveloped areas would have been bulldozed and turned into resorts,condos, strip malls and golf courses, just like what happened in Saipan.
Sacks' description of John Steele's personality and interactions with his Lytico-Bodig patients was most interesting to me. He describes Steele as highly empathetic and caring. However, on the "Vitals" website these days, he is rated "poor" with a 1.0 out of a possible 4.0 score, for what that's worth. But he was also fired as the physician director of the Skilled Nursing Unit, Guam Memorial Hospital's long-term care facility, early in 2012 after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid conducted a "scathing" (according to press reports) survey of the SNU.
Well, whatevs.... I guess Sacks has come down in favor of bats eating cycad seeds and concentrating a toxin (BMAA) that Chamorros who ate the bats got a heavy dose of, giving them the Lytico-Bodig, though he doesn't elaborate on that in the book.
Steele, who has studied the disease for most of his professional career, has discarded that thesis, along with postulated connections with genetics, minerals, metals, food and water. The cause remains a mystery, which is remarkable for a disease that at one point in the 1940s was the leading cause of death among Chamorros. But now it is essentially extinct, with only some elderly patients still affected; no one has acquired the disease since 1951.
I wouldn't be surprised if the disease is just another taupathy, related to abnormalities in the MAPT gene. Or something. But even if it is, why, when and where did it first appear on Guam, and why has it died out? I can't help thinking the population bottleneck the Chamorros suffered courtesy of the Spanish had something to do with it, but what do I know? Perhaps Dr. Steele will write the definitive book on this disease. I look forward to reading it.
I was hoping to learn something interesting about Lytico-Bodig from Sacks' book. But I didn't.
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Jun 03, 2011 Carol jinx~☆~ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: informational-interesting

I love Oliver Sacks. He picks interesting things to write about. I first read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a few years ago (now who could resist such a catchy title) and I loved it.
This book addresses a disease I didn't think was so prevalent, colorblindness. I just thought that was a good excuse for men who couldn't put their ties and shirts together properly but now I consider myself more informed on the disease,achromatopsia.

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Jun 16, 2011 Jamio rated it 5 of 5 stars

I knew I would enjoy this book, having thoroughly liked previous books by this author, but I did not expect to be enchanted. Perhaps because it narrates a journey through the Islands of the Pacific where I have never been though I am of the blood true. Perhaps because it is surprising, in the modern world of specialization, to come across a renaissance man of the same breed as Charles Darwin, people who don't distinguish between modes of science any more than they distinguish between science and...more

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Mar 13, 2009 Nora rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sacks writes a pretty scientific account of his Micronesian tour, which I guess I can't criticize. The guy's a neurologist. However, that being said, he does a phenomenal job describing the interactions he has with Pacific Islanders and how mystified he is by nature.

***

And in that first long moment, with the children coming out of the forest, some with their arms around each other, and the tropical luxuriance of vegetation in all directions - the beauty of the primitive, the human and the natura...more

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May 01, 2009 Jake rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel, science

A very good and unusual combination of travelogue and medical mystery-- this book would be an excellent choice for a vacation anywhere in the Pacific. As in his other books, Sacks has a talent for painting very vivid pictures of people and places-- and moreover, he brings a similar clarity to his descriptions of complex scientific and medical phenomena. One thing I love about him is that he never dumbs it down-- he speaks in the language of science and expects you to have the right vocabulary.

A...more

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Oct 11, 2009 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 30, 2011 Myrren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, nederlands, non-fiction

Sacks is a wonderful writer, who has managed to install more of a sense of wonder at the possibilities (and limitations) of science in me than my teachers have. This book reminds me of Bill Brysons A Short History Of Nearly Everything, because of the wrong tracks, solutions that aren't quite right, etc. This is how real science marches forward: not a few individuals making grand discoveries, but scores of people who try and try and try to find an answer, until somebody stands on the shoulders of...more

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Mar 13, 2009 Sharyn Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

What's not to love: traveling around tropical islands with Oliver Sacks, bringing needed supplies to poor citizens, some of whom have a rare disorder that they see in black and white and are extremely sensitive to light. Again, Oliver Sacks' wit and compassion come through (and he gets a bit geeky over the botanical specimens he finds, which is slightly less compelling) as you follow him around, meeting all sorts of people. I cried when a kid who'd never been able to play outside, got a pair of...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Bart rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

Warm description of a Sacks journey to Pingelap & Guam, two islands with an exceptional high occurrence of a particular disease. Typically Sacks, his descriptions come always with regard for the person behind the patient.

Quite a part of the book goes on his travel experience itself, which is in general a nice read, but often links back to Sacks interest in botany and especially cycads, a hobby I have little or no affiliation with...

BTW - enjoyed to complement the book with a Google Earth, vi...more

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Dec 02, 2010 Valarie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: educational

Normally I don't read more than one book by an author (that is, until I've finished reading all of the major authors in the world!), but with Oliver Sacks, the subjects are just too fascinating to pass up. The first section of this book, "The Island of the Colorblind," is very engrossing, but the second section, "Cycads," is almost completely about trees. Though Sacks is interested in both neurological anomalies and ancient plants, most people are not fascinated by both. The two sections of this...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biology, other-science, social-studies

The first Oliver Sacks book I read was The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, and since then have been a devotee of his work.
He is a Naurologist, yes- but he is also a poet, not in the literal sense, but his ability to make the interesting into fantastic and the pretty into the magnificently beautiful is unrivaled.
He is also an incredible humanitarian, and though generally he does not "gush" per se, he is so thoughtful, kind, and sympathetic in his descriptions that one cannot help but adore...more

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Nov 14, 2010 Nola rated it 3 of 5 stars

There is a type of complete colorblindness, achromatopsia, where people do not have functional cones in their eyes and are almost blind in sunlight because of the sensitivity of the rods. Achromatopsia, unlike red-green colorblindness, is very rare. The island of Fuur and the island of Pingelap both had large numbers of people suffering from this congenital achromatopsia. Only Pingelap, in the south Pacific, still has large numbers of achromatopes. The author visited Pingelap with a physiologist...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars

As an admirer of Oliver Sacks’s clear, inquisitive articles on neurobiology, I was saddened to discover that his travelogue of Micronesia is both patronizing and exoticizing.

Throughout this book, Sacks employs the same tone he uses when discussing patients with debilitating medical ailments, a kind of sympathetic wonderment at the bizarre feats performed damaged brains. Here, this tone is applied to entire populations and cultures, as when he describes the ponderously fat islanders whose diets...more As an admirer of Oliver Sacks’s clear, inquisitive articles on neurobiology, I was saddened to discover that his travelogue of Micronesia is both patronizing and exoticizing.

Throughout this book, Sacks employs the same tone he uses when discussing patients with debilitating medical ailments, a kind of sympathetic wonderment at the bizarre feats performed damaged brains. Here, this tone is applied to entire populations and cultures, as when he describes the ponderously fat islanders whose diets include vast quantities of Spam. He casually remarks that the Micronesians might have practiced cannibalism, and that Spam’s popularity might therefore be attributed its similarity in flavor to the taste of human flesh.

Needless to say, this is a preposterous and racist supposition. In the Pacific islands (where I grew up), communities and economies were devastated by both World War II and decades of colonial occupation. People became dependent on Spam and other high-sodium, high-fat, high-sugar tinned products imported and distributed by the United States military. Obesity and diabetes are the natural consequences of replacing a native, lean, seafood diet with one manufactured by ConAgra. But Sacks is delighted by the possibility of remote island peoples retaining their primitive (and putative) taste for human flesh, and so fails to explore the more prosaic, less sensational truth.

Elsewhere, he is paternalistic in a reflexive, unthinking way. He described seeing beautiful children running in packs, as wild animals, and his urge to pluck them up and keep them. It is an offhand remark, but one that stings. This kind of thoughtless condescension, wherein he treats islanders as exotic foreign specimens rather than people, crops up repeatedly.

Still, Sacks is a terrific writer with an unrivaled instinct for describing the indescribable. He writes stunningly of the out-of-body disorientation caused by kava-kava, and imagines the experience of a color-blind person seeing the world through textures. He describes the experience of aging into a state of neurodegenerative paralysis, and shows remarkable breadth of knowledge over the disease’s possible botanical causes. The neurological disorders at the heart of the book are legitimately unique and fascinating – if only Sacks didn’t see fit to treat the people like the disease.(less)

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Feb 09, 2009 Harry Rutherford rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science

I picked this up again because I was blogging about cycads. In this book Sacks visits a couple of Pacific islands where many of the locals have unusual neurological conditions; total colour-blindness on Pingelap and a degenerative disorder called lytico-bodig on Guam.

The neurology is interesting—the colour blindness isn’t typical red/green colour-blindness but a complete absence of colour perception, and lytico-bodig is a disease of unknown cause, with such varied presentation that it was origin...more

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Mar 24, 2010 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars

You gotta love Oliver Sacks. He's just so knowledgeable and nerdy and energetic. There are so many things in the world he knows about that I never imagined! This is another unusual population--a heavy concentration of colorblind people are found on a few islands in the North Pacific. He puzzles about this, wondering what are the factors that make it so concentrated in this area. He brings much scientific expertise to the table and looks at many angles. His sweet concern with the people keep it f...more

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Jan 26, 2008 Ryan Berkebile rated it 3 of 5 stars

In the first half of the book, Oliver Sacks goes to Micronesia to explore the high rate of colorblindness amongst the population of Pohnpei. One theory cites a terrible hurricane over two hundred years ago decimated over ninty percent of the island. In order to restock the island, inbreeding had to take place over numerous generations which would lead to genetic defects.
The second half of the book has Sacks going to Guam to look at a mysterous neurodegenerative paralysis similar to Parkinson's....more

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Dec 25, 2012 Shelby Guinn rated it 3 of 5 stars

I only read the first part, as at this time I'm doing some research into complete colorblindness. Dr. Sacks's discussion of two island groups that have a high number of people who have complete colorblindness is very insightful. Although not exactly what I had in mind, and I would have like to have more information as to what it is like to be this way, I enjoyed the book. In some ways it was more of a travel book than a scientific treatise. Very well written and I look forward to reading other t...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Marc rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cognition, philosophy-101, the-island

As someone who is colourblind, it's not easy to look at myself as a case study in anthropology. I am also an evolutionary biologist who studied the genetics of island populations. His narrative is sometimes engaging although it often gets tedious, or perhaps slow is more fair. I never knew where he was going with the narrative. It isn't very good as a story and it isn't all that great as an evolutionary case study.

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May 11, 2009 Valerie added it

Many of Sacks' books have opened up new ideas and understandings of mind--this one added a new element for me--familiarity. I don't suffer from achromatopsia--my color vision is a bit odd, but not so's I can't read the little numbers in the
color-vision test. But there're secondary aspects, such as the sensitivity to light, that do pertain to me.

I'm rereading it now more or less as a review--but I may go back and reread other of Sacks' works, afterward.
I'm re-reading it now not only to add it t...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Nina J. Kors rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: necessari

Ho amato profondamente la scrittura di Oliver Sacks, e in particolare questo libro: permette di vedere l'evoluzione sociale sotto differenti punti di vista. Un libro formativo e direi, necessario nella bibliografia di chiunque (anche se la sua scrittura non è che mi prenda moltissimo, ma chi se ne importa, è un testo che merita).

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Mar 18, 2012 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Part travelogue, part scientific mystery story, as neurologist Oliver Sacks investigates the possible causes of Lytico-Bodig disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytico-B...) visits an island where a significant portion of the population has total colour-blindness, and indulges his passion for cycads.
Makes you want to move to any Pacific Island - as long as it isn't Guam.

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Jul 29, 2012 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an amazing story of Dr. Sacks going to a small island of people who a majority are colorblind. Dr. Sacks has a way of making a story dance off the pages. He talks about knowing that people living on this island have a reccessive gene for color blindness. Great story about how he helps them.

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Oct 16, 2009 Horizon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: susan-in-petoskey-picks

I have yet to read a book by Oliver Sacks that I didn't like. This guy is the sort of Scientist that I love. He is interested in all fields, and how they interact; looking at both the details and the big picture. He is also a great travel writer to boot, truly capturing a sense of the places he visits.

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Oct 16, 2009 Thimbleberry rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Jul 22, 2009 Cerealflakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book to be really interesting. I am someone who is interested in medical mysteries, and those are the types of books sacks writes. He is a very engaging writer, and he includes lots of personal anecdotes in his writing. I have read several of his books, and I plan on reading more of them.

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Feb 17, 2013 Elsie Heyrman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: other-interesting-topics

I love Oliver Sacks. I would read any book by him.This book is about a small island where many of the people go blind. Sacks describes the phenomenon and then explains the research which led to the probable causes of it. I've never forgotten this one. I hope to read all of his work.

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About Oliver Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and E...more Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.

After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.

Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.

His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".

Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks remains a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintains a practice in New York City.

Since 1996, Sacks is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks has been awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
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