The River of Consciousness
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Average rating3.8
Completed shortly before his death, this profoundly fascinating, illuminating work from bestselling thinker and neurologist Oliver Sacks provides readers with a compelling and rare gift. The River of Consciousness reflects Oliver Sacks at his wisest and most humane, as he examines some of the human animal's most remarkable faculties: memory, creativity, consciousness, and our present, ongoing evolution. Before his death, Sacks personally collected into this one volume his recent essays, never before published in book form, which he felt best displayed his passionate engagement with his most compelling and seminal ideas. The book, lucid and accessible as ever, is a mirror of his own consciousness, discovering in his personal and humane interactions with others, unique insight, and fresh meaning. Featuring a preface written two weeks before his death, The River of Consciousnessreveals the beloved, bestselling author's unique ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what it is that makes us human.
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Oliver Sacks' work is definitely worth reading, and I would highly recommend The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, but I don't know that The River of Consciousness is good without the additional context of its famous author.
This book is a collection of essays from the very of end of Sacks' life. It touches upon many different topics and summarizes a few aspects of his earlier work. He also discusses other famous psychologists and scientists and the difficulties of having a "legacy" as he he too has become a famous researcher.
I was interested in reading what Sacks had to say because I find his work interesting and think that he is a very thoughtful person, but I must admit that if my interest in Sacks hadn't kept me going, I likely would have DNF'd this book. It's difficult for me to recommend this to anyone who is unfamiliar with Oliver Sacks and I definitely would recommend his earlier works first. It's also worth noting that although many of these works were written at the end of Sacks' life, they are not particularly morbid or focused on death themselves, but "legacy" and "memory" are recurring themes.
