The letters of one of the greatest observers of the human species, revealing his passion for life and work, friendship and art, medicine and society, and the richness of his relationships with friends, family, and fellow intellectuals over the decades, collected here for the first time.
Six decades of Sacks’s letters have been expertly woven into an effulgent collection of humanistic observations and descriptions, philosophical musings, personal anecdotes, epiphanies and poetry, all of which resonate with grace, gratitude humor and humility ... A testament to an extraordinary life, a life full of meaning and method. Sacks’s consistency, his dedication, his love of words, of knowledge, of storytelling, but especially of his patients establishes Sacks as one of the great inspirational voices, thinkers and explorers of our time.
A meticulous, thorough and loving selection that constitutes not only a series of reflections and explorations but also a gripping memoir, a Bildungsroman at one remove ... Sacks’s letters are always expressive of his personality, though in various modes ... What makes reading through all of these missives delightful is the inescapable gift for metaphor that sparkles on almost every page.
Sacks was insatiably curious and wrote ceaselessly and joyfully about anything that caught his interest, which was just about everything. Readers get a new glimpse into his mind this year, nearly a decade after his death, thanks to a handsome new collection of the doctor’s letters ... Sack was alive to the world.
