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Oliver Sacks

Uncle Tungsten

'Uncle Tungsten' is a description of Sacks' life between the age of 10 and 14, when he was discovering the joys of science, interspersed with historical material about scientists who inspired him. The title of the book comes from an uncle who ran a factory making tungsten light bulb filaments, but many of the Sacks family were involved in metals in one way or another giving Oliver a ready source of answers to his questions as well as material for his chemical laboratory. The book needs no prior scientific knowledge and is recommended for all readers for its fascinating story of how Sacks developed his enthusiasm for science.

The one problem with the book is that it is written long after the fact. This is reasonable for an autobiography, but I couldn't help feeling that the historical chapters were based on later knowledge, and so they tended to break up the flow. Towards the end as Sacks moves away from physical science to medicine, he seems a bit introverted - but again I wondered if this was a later analysis of the situation.

The book illustrates how much the attitudes to safety have changed. Anything called a chemical nowadays is considered dangerous. Now when I was young I bought some nitric acid and walked home with the bottle in my pocket. Sacks managed to get a small container of hydrofluoric acid, which is definitely nasty (although he never opened it).

Amazon.com info

Hardcover 352 pages
ISBN: 0375404481
Salesrank: 541870
Weight:1.24 lbs

Published: 2001 Knopf

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Amazon.co.uk info

Paperback 250 pages
ISBN: 0330390287
Salesrank: 23603
Weight:0.84 lbs

Published: 2002 Picador

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Product Description
From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks, the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time, was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. Born into a large family of doctors, metallurgists, chemists, physicists, and teachers, his curiosity was encouraged and abetted by aunts, uncles, parents, and older brothers. But soon after his sixth birthday, the Second World War broke out and he was evacuated from London, as were hundreds of thousands of children, to escape the bombing. Exiled to a school that rivaled Dickens's grimmest, fed on a steady diet of turnips and beetroots, tormented by a sadistic headmaster, and allowed home only once in four years, he felt desolate and abandoned. When he returned to London in 1943 at the age of ten, he was a changed, withdrawn boy, one who desperately needed order to make sense of his life. He was sustained by his secret passions: for numbers, for metals, and for finding patterns in the world around him. Under the tutelage of his "chemical" uncle, Uncle Tungsten, Sacks began to experiment with "the stinks and bangs" that almost define a first entry into chemistry: tossing sodium off a bridge to see it take fire in the water below; producing billowing clouds of noxious-smelling chemicals in his home lab. As his interests spread to investigations of batteries and bulbs, vacuum tubes and photography, he discovered his first great scientific heroes, men and women whose genius lay in understanding the hidden order of things and disclosing the forces that sustain and support the tangible world. There was Humphry Davy, the boyish chemist who delighted in sending flaming globules of metal shooting across his lab; Marie Curie, whose heroic efforts in isolating radium would ultimately lead to the unlocking of the secrets of the atom; and Dmitri Mendeleev, inventor of the periodic table, whose pursuit of the classification of elements unfolds like a detective story. Uncle Tungsten vividly evokes a time when virtual reality had not yet displaced a hands-on knowledge of the world. It draws us into a journey of discovery that reveals, through the enchantment and wonder of a childhood passion, the birth of an extraordinary and original mind.

Product Description

From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks, the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time, was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. Born into a large family of doctors, metallurgists, chemists, physicists, and teachers, his curiosity was encouraged and abetted by aunts, uncles, parents, and older brothers. But soon after his sixth birthday, the Second World War broke out and he was evacuated from London, as were hundreds of thousands of children, to escape the bombing. Exiled to a school that rivaled Dickens's grimmest, fed on a steady diet of turnips and beetroots, tormented by a sadistic headmaster, and allowed home only once in four years, he felt desolate and abandoned.

When he returned to London in 1943 at the age of ten, he was a changed, withdrawn boy, one who desperately needed order to make sense of his life. He was sustained by his secret passions: for numbers, for metals, and for finding patterns in the world around him. Under the tutelage of his "chemical" uncle, Uncle Tungsten, Sacks began to experiment with "the stinks and bangs" that almost define a first entry into chemistry: tossing sodium off a bridge to see it take fire in the water below; producing billowing clouds of noxious-smelling chemicals in his home lab. As his interests spread to investigations of batteries and bulbs, vacuum tubes and photography, he discovered his first great scientific heroes, men and women whose genius lay in understanding the hidden order of things and disclosing the forces that sustain and support the tangible world. There was Humphry Davy, the boyish chemist who delighted in sending flaming globules of metal shooting across his lab; Marie Curie, whose heroic efforts in isolating radium would ultimately lead to the unlocking of the secrets of the atom; and Dmitri Mendeleev, inventor of the periodic table, whose pursuit of the classification of elements unfolds like a detective story.

Uncle Tungsten vividly evokes a time when virtual reality had not yet displaced a hands-on knowledge of the world. It draws us into a journey of discovery that reveals, through the enchantment and wonder of a childhood passion, the birth of an extraordinary and original mind.

School isn't necessary for an education *****
Fascinating read about a young boy's exposure to science and science history. Consider it as a gift for a science-minded youngster.

School isn't necessary for an education *****

Fascinating read about a young boy's exposure to science and science history.
Consider it as a gift for a science-minded youngster.

You're reading WHAT ?!? ****
If you love Sacks writing, read this one. Okay, I'm interested in chemistry, but regardless, one reads this book for the anecdotes. Every family has it's "characters" - that is part of what makes the memories of our youth treasures beyond price. It's as entertaining as Vonnegut without the psychosis :~o

You're reading WHAT ?!? ****

If you love Sacks writing, read this one.
Okay, I'm interested in chemistry, but regardless, one reads this book for the anecdotes. Every family has it's "characters" - that is part of what makes the memories of our youth treasures beyond price.
It's as entertaining as Vonnegut without the psychosis :~o

God thinks in numbers ****
There are some surprises here: first of all, I honestly thought Sacks is a normal American, probably family immigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. No, he grew up in London as the youngest boy in a huge family of Jewish scientists, physicians, and industrialists. 100 cousins! Some family branches in South Africa, Palestine, Germany and elsewhere. Also, I expected a normal autobiography, despite the ominous subtitle 'memories of a chemical boyhood'. I thought I would find out how the man got where he was to be much later. No, we don't. We only learn about his first 14 years. And we learn a lot about the history of chemistry, probably more than most readers would have opted for. But we also learn the following: A boy grows up in a huge house in London with a huge family, everything is paradise, there is emotion (from Ma) and stimulation (from all) and whatever a little boy needs. Then there is WW2 and the boy and his elder brother get evacuated to a boarding school, which is the prototype of all horrors. Bullying drives the brother into paranoia and the hero into closing the shutters with science and chemistry inside and the rest of the world outside. He is liberated after 4 years and moves back home, but things are not what they were. He remains in his insulation. He ignores the events of the world. Politics incl. Zionism is bullying. He dislikes the punitive God of the orthodox. He is only a chemist. With puberty and the end of WW2 the infatuation ends, or rather goes subterranean/subcutanean. Sacks learns new things, among others he discovers marine biology, and he reads Cannery Row, which makes him long for America. (previous mentioning of literature is sparse, there is some interest in Wells' science fiction, and there is a fascination with 1984, but that is obviously ahead of itself) I give it only 4 stars, because I do not like chemistry quite as much (as I worked for a chemical company for 20 years.)

God thinks in numbers ****

There are some surprises here: first of all, I honestly thought Sacks is a normal American, probably family immigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. No, he grew up in London as the youngest boy in a huge family of Jewish scientists, physicians, and industrialists. 100 cousins! Some family branches in South Africa, Palestine, Germany and elsewhere.
Also, I expected a normal autobiography, despite the ominous subtitle 'memories of a chemical boyhood'. I thought I would find out how the man got where he was to be much later. No, we don't. We only learn about his first 14 years. And we learn a lot about the history of chemistry, probably more than most readers would have opted for.
But we also learn the following:
A boy grows up in a huge house in London with a huge family, everything is paradise, there is emotion (from Ma) and stimulation (from all) and whatever a little boy needs.
Then there is WW2 and the boy and his elder brother get evacuated to a boarding school, which is the prototype of all horrors. Bullying drives the brother into paranoia and the hero into closing the shutters with science and chemistry inside and the rest of the world outside.
He is liberated after 4 years and moves back home, but things are not what they were. He remains in his insulation. He ignores the events of the world. Politics incl. Zionism is bullying. He dislikes the punitive God of the orthodox. He is only a chemist.
With puberty and the end of WW2 the infatuation ends, or rather goes subterranean/subcutanean. Sacks learns new things, among others he discovers marine biology, and he reads Cannery Row, which makes him long for America. (previous mentioning of literature is sparse, there is some interest in Wells' science fiction, and there is a fascination with 1984, but that is obviously ahead of itself)
I give it only 4 stars, because I do not like chemistry quite as much (as I worked for a chemical company for 20 years.)

Luminous: The Majesty of nature and science ****
We follow in young Oliver's footsteps as he discovers the evolution of science from its humble beginnings through a succession of remarkable and revolutionary leaps. Each time science takes its next step, it achieves another synthesis wherein so many previously poorly understood and seemingly disparate phenomena are joined together as part of a single framework. Uncle Tungsten is an eloquent and romantic vision that articulates the poetry of science. As we follow Lavoisier, Davies, Faraday, Maxwell Mendeleev, Rutherford, Bohr, and many others, each time along with Sacks himself we see the world anew, aflame with a fresh and more complete understanding of the underpinnings of our universe. It is an extraordinary achievement to combine such clarity with a sense of emotional involvement, to help the reader understand both the principles being explained as well as their aesthetic beauty and deeper significance in such a human way. For me each chapter that described science is as beautiful as anything else I've read and at the same time the book creates such powerful connections that it helped me to understand many important principles of science that I didn't even realize I was ignorant of! I am very grateful for this wonderful book. My only criticism is that the personal details of Oliver Sacks' own life are few and far between, and seem almost tacked on in between the chapters that are strictly about science and its practitioners themselves. I was fine more or less ignoring these chapters as they provide little real insight into Oliver's life, but if you expect this book to be a true autobiography you will perhaps come away disappointed. Never the less, I have not read a more beautiful book about science and I urge whomever is reading this review to give it a chance.

Luminous: The Majesty of nature and science ****

We follow in young Oliver's footsteps as he discovers the evolution of science from its humble beginnings through a succession of remarkable and revolutionary leaps. Each time science takes its next step, it achieves another synthesis wherein so many previously poorly understood and seemingly disparate phenomena are joined together as part of a single framework.

Uncle Tungsten is an eloquent and romantic vision that articulates the poetry of science. As we follow Lavoisier, Davies, Faraday, Maxwell Mendeleev, Rutherford, Bohr, and many others, each time along with Sacks himself we see the world anew, aflame with a fresh and more complete understanding of the underpinnings of our universe.

It is an extraordinary achievement to combine such clarity with a sense of emotional involvement, to help the reader understand both the principles being explained as well as their aesthetic beauty and deeper significance in such a human way.

For me each chapter that described science is as beautiful as anything else I've read and at the same time the book creates such powerful connections that it helped me to understand many important principles of science that I didn't even realize I was ignorant of! I am very grateful for this wonderful book.

My only criticism is that the personal details of Oliver Sacks' own life are few and far between, and seem almost tacked on in between the chapters that are strictly about science and its practitioners themselves. I was fine more or less ignoring these chapters as they provide little real insight into Oliver's life, but if you expect this book to be a true autobiography you will perhaps come away disappointed.
Never the less, I have not read a more beautiful book about science and I urge whomever is reading this review to give it a chance.

Memorable in many ways *****
This book has many wonderful aspects. One of them is Sacks' somewhat nonchalant description of what was a truly traumatic boarding-school experience. It is remarkable that he emerged as well as he did from the routine sadism of those four years in the countryside. It was only his fascination with chemistry and his capacity for detachment and introspection that permitted him to survive. Another memorable quality of the book is his immediate and personal understanding of the key question of science: Why? I never gave it much thought, but it wasn't until well into the twentieth century that scientists understood why the sun is so hot and will remain so hot more-or-less permanently. Until nuclear reactions were understood, this was a mystery. Sacks, paralleling centuries of investigators before him, is always asking why. This was great training for his ultimate and successful career as a neurologist. Finally, the portrayal of upper-middle-class London before and after World War II was very memorable. From a European viewpoint, America was pretty much untouched by the war; it had not been annexed or bombed by Hitler. England, on the other hand, was forever changed by the experience.

Memorable in many ways *****

This book has many wonderful aspects. One of them is Sacks' somewhat nonchalant description of what was a truly traumatic boarding-school experience. It is remarkable that he emerged as well as he did from the routine sadism of those four years in the countryside. It was only his fascination with chemistry and his capacity for detachment and introspection that permitted him to survive.

Another memorable quality of the book is his immediate and personal understanding of the key question of science: Why? I never gave it much thought, but it wasn't until well into the twentieth century that scientists understood why the sun is so hot and will remain so hot more-or-less permanently. Until nuclear reactions were understood, this was a mystery. Sacks, paralleling centuries of investigators before him, is always asking why. This was great training for his ultimate and successful career as a neurologist.

Finally, the portrayal of upper-middle-class London before and after World War II was very memorable. From a European viewpoint, America was pretty much untouched by the war; it had not been annexed or bombed by Hitler. England, on the other hand, was forever changed by the experience.

Oliver Sacks history of chemistry, disguised as a biography: disappointing. **
After some years ago reading Sacks classic `The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat `I was keen to read something else. His biography seemed to be an intriguing option. Sadly I was very disappointed with this book. Although the title hints at an involvement with chemistry I did not expect the book to be almost entirely about chemistry and its history. I estimate that 95% of the book is concerned with this subject. There is little space given to detail of his actual life and absolutely no mention of psychology or neurology. Since this is of course the aspect of Sacks that attracts most people to his books this will be a complete surprise to most people. The detail of the history of chemistry is certainly too some extent interesting, but it becomes far too in-depth and specific. Unless you have an explicit interest in chemistry then this may well become somewhat tedious and boring, as it did for me. I finished the book feeling that I had learnt nothing new and gained little. Although the other reviews rate the book highly I can not help thinking that many people will ultimately be disappointed by this biography that is really anything but a biography. Had Sacks opted to scrap the small fraction of the book that relates to himself and his family and titled the book as a history of chemistry then it might be more appealing to an audience that might fully appreciate it.

Oliver Sacks history of chemistry, disguised as a biography: disappointing. **

After some years ago reading Sacks classic `The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat `I was keen to read something else. His biography seemed to be an intriguing option. Sadly I was very disappointed with this book. Although the title hints at an involvement with chemistry I did not expect the book to be almost entirely about chemistry and its history. I estimate that 95% of the book is concerned with this subject. There is little space given to detail of his actual life and absolutely no mention of psychology or neurology. Since this is of course the aspect of Sacks that attracts most people to his books this will be a complete surprise to most people. The detail of the history of chemistry is certainly too some extent interesting, but it becomes far too in-depth and specific. Unless you have an explicit interest in chemistry then this may well become somewhat tedious and boring, as it did for me. I finished the book feeling that I had learnt nothing new and gained little. Although the other reviews rate the book highly I can not help thinking that many people will ultimately be disappointed by this biography that is really anything but a biography. Had Sacks opted to scrap the small fraction of the book that relates to himself and his family and titled the book as a history of chemistry then it might be more appealing to an audience that might fully appreciate it.

The Metaphor of Chemistry *****
Dr. Sacks has written a number books beautifully crafted around the fascinating neurological lives of his patients. And to an extent in them we can glimpse the limitations of neurololgy in providing finer and finer observations but until recent years only more limited clinical help.But Oliver Sacks has always managed this with an apparent self effacing humanity. In Uncle Tungsten he turns the magnifying glass on himself and we watch his own growth and development through the metaphor of the Periodic Table of the Elements. His humanity shone through and when I came to the end,too soon, I was so engrossed that I was uncertain whether I had been reading his autobiography or my own.

The Metaphor of Chemistry *****

Dr. Sacks has written a number books beautifully crafted around the fascinating neurological lives of his patients. And to an extent in them we can glimpse the limitations of neurololgy in providing finer and finer observations but until recent years only more limited clinical help.But Oliver Sacks has always managed this with an apparent self effacing humanity.
In Uncle Tungsten he turns the magnifying glass on himself and we watch his own growth and development through the metaphor of the Periodic Table of the Elements.
His humanity shone through and when I came to the end,too soon, I was so engrossed that I was uncertain whether I had been reading his autobiography or my own.

Calling all scientists *****
I adored this book. I got it from my local library and am now buying my own copy. However, I would add that I read chemistry at college and was recommended it by another chemist. It is not a particularly difficult book, I want my 14-year-old to read it, but it is much more chemistry than biography. It also made me think about what is missing now the practical element has been taken from the education system in the UK now; if you want to inspire a bright teenager this is the way to do it (I particularly like the passage about the 3lb lump of sodium and the local pond - I won't spoil it for non-chemists). The biographical detail is interspersed with chemical passages and potted biographies of Sack's favourite chemists from the past. The thing that stood out the most though, was the sheer excitement of living through science as it was refined and discovered. There was no atom bomb when the book started, that came along the way. One of Sack's uncles had a scintillation gadget with a tiny amount of radioactive substance that emitted radiation you could see. There is an excitement and enthusiasm not found in many books now. As well as being gripped by the science, its application and the history, I found it an extremely well written book. I want to read his neurological books as a result.

Calling all scientists *****

I adored this book. I got it from my local library and am now buying my own copy. However, I would add that I read chemistry at college and was recommended it by another chemist. It is not a particularly difficult book, I want my 14-year-old to read it, but it is much more chemistry than biography.
It also made me think about what is missing now the practical element has been taken from the education system in the UK now; if you want to inspire a bright teenager this is the way to do it (I particularly like the passage about the 3lb lump of sodium and the local pond - I won't spoil it for non-chemists).
The biographical detail is interspersed with chemical passages and potted biographies of Sack's favourite chemists from the past. The thing that stood out the most though, was the sheer excitement of living through science as it was refined and discovered. There was no atom bomb when the book started, that came along the way. One of Sack's uncles had a scintillation gadget with a tiny amount of radioactive substance that emitted radiation you could see. There is an excitement and enthusiasm not found in many books now.
As well as being gripped by the science, its application and the history, I found it an extremely well written book. I want to read his neurological books as a result.

Thank heaven for puberty's hormonal rush ****
"... I wanted to lay hands on cobaltite and niccolite, and compounds or minerals of manganese and molybdenum, of uranium and chromium ... I wanted to pulverize them, treat them with acid, roast them, reduce them - whatever was necessary - so I could extract their metals myself." In the life of a pre-pubescent boy, whatever happened to the simple pleasures of sports, chasing girls to pull their pigtails, or playing cowboys and Indians? UNCLE TUNGSTEN is the childhood memoir of Oliver Sacks, who, as the son of two physicians in 1930s and 40s London, adopts more cerebral interests. Actually, let's call them obsessions, e.g., Mendeleev's Table of the Elements: "I copied it into my exercise book and carried it everywhere ... I spent hours now, enchanted, totally absorbed, wandering, making discoveries, in the enchanted garden of Mendeleev." Oliver's propensity for intellectual pursuits was further encouraged by his two maternal uncles, Dave and Abe, two scientist/business entrepreneurs, the former nicknamed UNCLE TUNGSTEN for his preoccupation with that element and his process for manufacturing tungsten light bulbs. This engaging and instructive volume is the author's narrative of his life from age 6 to 15, beginning in 1939 at the beginning of WWII, when he was protectively sent out of London to a boarding school. Returning in 1943, he set up his own household lab and began experimenting with a vengeance, his chief interest being metals and their properties. The text is leavened with descriptions of his home life, his parents and brothers, and summaries of the achievements of giants in the field of Chemistry: John Dalton, Robert Boyle, the Curies, Antoine Lavoisier, Dmitri Mendeleev, Ernest Rutherford, Michael Faraday, and others. UNCLE TUNGSTEN is a short, popular history of the science. I'm not awarding 5 stars because obsessions, especially someone else's, can become tiresome. Even Oliver's parents, responsible as any for his scientific curiosity, could be driven to distraction. At one point on a family auto trip, the young Sacks blathers on about one of his favorite elements for twenty minutes in the back seat until his father shouts, "Enough about thallium!" By the age of 15, Oliver's preoccupation with chemistry began to ebb as the hormones of adolescence began to flow. The boy, becoming a young man, discovers music and sex. Those then around him should thank the Almighty for puberty; he was becoming an insufferable eccentric. He grew up to be a neurologist.

Thank heaven for puberty's hormonal rush ****

"... I wanted to lay hands on cobaltite and niccolite, and compounds or minerals of manganese and molybdenum, of uranium and chromium ... I wanted to pulverize them, treat them with acid, roast them, reduce them - whatever was necessary - so I could extract their metals myself."

In the life of a pre-pubescent boy, whatever happened to the simple pleasures of sports, chasing girls to pull their pigtails, or playing cowboys and Indians?

UNCLE TUNGSTEN is the childhood memoir of Oliver Sacks, who, as the son of two physicians in 1930s and 40s London, adopts more cerebral interests. Actually, let's call them obsessions, e.g., Mendeleev's Table of the Elements:

"I copied it into my exercise book and carried it everywhere ... I spent hours now, enchanted, totally absorbed, wandering, making discoveries, in the enchanted garden of Mendeleev."

Oliver's propensity for intellectual pursuits was further encouraged by his two maternal uncles, Dave and Abe, two scientist/business entrepreneurs, the former nicknamed UNCLE TUNGSTEN for his preoccupation with that element and his process for manufacturing tungsten light bulbs.

This engaging and instructive volume is the author's narrative of his life from age 6 to 15, beginning in 1939 at the beginning of WWII, when he was protectively sent out of London to a boarding school. Returning in 1943, he set up his own household lab and began experimenting with a vengeance, his chief interest being metals and their properties. The text is leavened with descriptions of his home life, his parents and brothers, and summaries of the achievements of giants in the field of Chemistry: John Dalton, Robert Boyle, the Curies, Antoine Lavoisier, Dmitri Mendeleev, Ernest Rutherford, Michael Faraday, and others. UNCLE TUNGSTEN is a short, popular history of the science.

I'm not awarding 5 stars because obsessions, especially someone else's, can become tiresome. Even Oliver's parents, responsible as any for his scientific curiosity, could be driven to distraction. At one point on a family auto trip, the young Sacks blathers on about one of his favorite elements for twenty minutes in the back seat until his father shouts, "Enough about thallium!"

By the age of 15, Oliver's preoccupation with chemistry began to ebb as the hormones of adolescence began to flow. The boy, becoming a young man, discovers music and sex. Those then around him should thank the Almighty for puberty; he was becoming an insufferable eccentric. He grew up to be a neurologist.

Not the book you expect ***
This is a childhood memoir from Oliver Sacks. I've been an admirer of Sacks for years: it's clear from his books that he has a scintillating intelligence which he applies indiscriminately, not just to medicine, but art, music, literature, philosophy, and sciences of all kinds. I bought this book (early Christmas present to myself) to gain more insight into the man. Three quarters of the book is a history of the development of chemistry, which Sacks had a passion for as a boy (aided by two of his uncles especially). This is all very well, and is told in Sacks' very readable style, but it leaves me wanting more background to Sacks himself. Reading through his other books (I have the lot) one sees only tantalising glimpses of the man behind the words: I had hoped this book might provide the personal information I had wanted. Sadly, I was disappointed. Even sifting through what we get, there are some very disturbing glimpses into his childhood. His mother (an obstetrician and professor of anatomy) would sometimes bring home malformed foetuses which had died at birth, or been drowned by her "like a kitten" shortly afterwards. These she encourages the (13-year old!) Sacks to dissect, and would teach him about anatomy all the while. Later she arranges for him to dissect the body of a teenage girl at the local medical school under the supervision of "Professor G". Sacks goes on holiday to the seaside with his family. He is given a large live octopus as a gift by a fisherman, and keeps it in the family bath, where he talks of how he feeds it live crabs and it changes colour because it seems to recognise him. The maid comes into the bathroom one day and kills the octopus with a broom handle in a panic. Sacks, of course, then dissects his beloved pet and keeps parts of it preserved in jars on his shelves for many years. While it seems pretty clear that Sacks had a very precocious intellect, and was probably streets ahead of his peers in terms of intelligence, I find these incidents very disturbing. The more I read Sacks, the more I think that perhaps there are unpleasant depths to his character that this book gives us only a hint of. As a description of chemistry, this book is entertaining enough. As a glimpse into the life of Oliver Sacks, it is both inadequate and troubling.

Not the book you expect ***

This is a childhood memoir from Oliver Sacks.

I've been an admirer of Sacks for years: it's clear from his books that he has a scintillating intelligence which he applies indiscriminately, not just to medicine, but art, music, literature, philosophy, and sciences of all kinds.

I bought this book (early Christmas present to myself) to gain more insight into the man.

Three quarters of the book is a history of the development of chemistry, which Sacks had a passion for as a boy (aided by two of his uncles especially). This is all very well, and is told in Sacks' very readable style, but it leaves me wanting more background to Sacks himself. Reading through his other books (I have the lot) one sees only tantalising glimpses of the man behind the words: I had hoped this book might provide the personal information I had wanted. Sadly, I was disappointed.

Even sifting through what we get, there are some very disturbing glimpses into his childhood.

His mother (an obstetrician and professor of anatomy) would sometimes bring home malformed foetuses which had died at birth, or been drowned by her "like a kitten" shortly afterwards. These she encourages the (13-year old!) Sacks to dissect, and would teach him about anatomy all the while.

Later she arranges for him to dissect the body of a teenage girl at the local medical school under the supervision of "Professor G".

Sacks goes on holiday to the seaside with his family. He is given a large live octopus as a gift by a fisherman, and keeps it in the family bath, where he talks of how he feeds it live crabs and it changes colour because it seems to recognise him. The maid comes into the bathroom one day and kills the octopus with a broom handle in a panic. Sacks, of course, then dissects his beloved pet and keeps parts of it preserved in jars on his shelves for many years.

While it seems pretty clear that Sacks had a very precocious intellect, and was probably streets ahead of his peers in terms of intelligence, I find these incidents very disturbing.

The more I read Sacks, the more I think that perhaps there are unpleasant depths to his character that this book gives us only a hint of.

As a description of chemistry, this book is entertaining enough. As a glimpse into the life of Oliver Sacks, it is both inadequate and troubling.