Matt's review
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
by Oliver W. Sacks
Matt's review
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver W. Sacks
Matt's review
rating:
Oliver Sacks has been one of my favorite authors ever since I first read The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. I still completely amazed, and a little bit disturbed, when I think back to his account of the woman who lost her sense of proprioception - the internal body sense that lets you know your body is there, even when you have your eyes closed. No other author (since Proust) has explored the nuances of consciousness so carefully, nor pointed out how tenuous the our grip on reality can be.
I've enjoyed his other books that I've read, but his lost something since he wrote Man..". His subjects in that book were all his patients at one point - and that kind of clinical closeness gave a depth to his analysis that is slightly lacking in some of his later writing. The sense of amazement is still there, but it seems slightly shallower.
Musicophilia may have the same problem, but it more than compensates with the sheer enthusiasm that Sacks brings to the ...more
I've enjoyed his other books that I've read, but his lost something since he wrote Man..". His subjects in that book were all his patients at one point - and that kind of clinical closeness gave a depth to his analysis that is slightly lacking in some of his later writing. The sense of amazement is still there, but it seems slightly shallower.
Musicophilia may have the same problem, but it more than compensates with the sheer enthusiasm that Sacks brings to the ...more
