RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewThe word \'Oneirism\' is more than just an obscure exception to the \'i\' before \'e\' rhymelet. It also exemplifies the exceptionally advanced and sometimes stymying lexical breadth of Oliver Sacks’s writing—never more challenging than in this last, posthumous book ... this obscure terminology serves to honor the reader. If you don’t know our meanings, these terms imply, trust us that we are carefully chosen, as we trust you to look us up ... the topics here are actually a wonderfully odd lot ... Life bursts through all of Oliver Sacks’s writing. He was and will remain a brilliant singularity. It’s hard to call to mind one dull passage in his work—one dull sentence, for that matter. At the end of this book, and very near the end of his life, in \'Filter Fish,\' he even manages to give gefilte fish, of all things, a wonderful star turn[.]
A.J. Jacobs
MixedThe New York Times Book Review\"Most of It’s All Relative is a mixture of narrative, research, reflection and often-effortful wit. Its factual and documentary aspects are frequently both fascinating and seemingly improvisational, almost ad-libbed, in a cheerful way ... But the bulk of It’s All Relative is colored by Jacobs’s offhand-sounding efforts to amuse and entertain the reader. From time to time they work ... unfortunately, for some readers, a lot of Jacobs’s attempts at amusing commentary and bumptious riffs will fall recumbent or all the way to flat ... Senses of humor vary so widely that it’s hard to pass any kind of objective judgment on them. But “It’s All Relative” works best, this subjectivist thinks, when the author’s voice butts out, and the research oddities and genealogical wonderments speak for themselves. Paradoxically, too much funny self-effacement can come off as self-centeredness.\
Alan Alda
MixedThe New York Times Book Review[Alda] knows how to exemplify his ideas ... [he] also deadens his pan nicely in many places ... There’s no question that Alda’s work with scientists and doctors — thousands of them, at this point — has admirably helped them communicate with the rest of us, especially patients. But his book too often settles for anodyne and sometimes repetitive commentary.
Jonathan Safran Foer
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review...[an] often brilliant, always original but sometimes problematic new novel ... Here I Am wants to dismantle traditional narrative in a way that ultimately adds up to — well, a traditional narrative, or at least its psychological and emotional equivalent. It breaks things in the interest of making them whole again ... either explicitly or by implication almost every aspect of the novel passes through the prism of Judaism or at least Jewish culture...this makes it feel a little restricted ... For all that, the novel as a whole supersedes its difficulties — especially in its emotional intelligence and complexity.
