 "You're reading WHAT ?!?" | 2008-09-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1DD7OZR3NA8EC |
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 |
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| "God thinks in numbers" | 2008-07-22 |
| - Reviewed By duibuqi |
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.) |
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| "Luminous: The Majesty of nature and science" | 2008-07-13 |
| - Reviewed By levinv |
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.
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 "Memorable in many ways" | 2008-06-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZ85B5Q1UEH5U |
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.
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| "Uncle Tungsten" | 2008-05-14 |
| - Reviewed By pfolley7 |
| This is the second copy of Uncle Tungsten for me. I bought it when it was first released, loved it, and, unfortunately, loaned it to one too many friends. Now I have one to browse my favorite bits in, revisit the very different childhood of a man my age. Oliver Sachs treats his younger self with the same wide-eyed curiosity as he affords his patients. |
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| "Uncle Oliver" | 2007-07-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: AXLVIRL48SQIZ |
The relationship between uncle and nephew is the most precious. Why? Because nephews confide in uncles like they don't confide in a father or mother. And uncles are sort of pseudo fathers to nephews. The responsibility of an uncle is not less than a father: to inspire and stimulate the child wherever he resists parental influence. I would imagine the rapport between an aunt and a niece is the same way, looking up to the corresponding role model and same sex mentor.
Although Dr. Sacks paints a portrait of his extended family in this book, his Uncle Dave "Tungsten" is highlighted as an important source of inspiration. His retelling of his childhood and adolescence is fascinating. This is a beautiful book, sometimes overwhelming when scientific lingo becomes predominant but very warm and engaging. Even with a poor knowledge in chemistry -- my case -- it's immensely enjoyable. Dr. Sacks' childhood memories are colorful, jam-packed, very serious at times but also humorous, a bit like John Boorman's movie "Hope and Glory". |
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| "I wish all children were introduced to science like this!" | 2007-05-15 |
| - Reviewed By klsreader |
Sigh...as a science educator who sees students turned off of science in spite of it being much more interesting and useful then English and history, it's frustrating to read about a child whose family managed to convey the fun of science. I've enjoyed Oliver Sacks books so much. He is such a great person, a great neurologist, a great writer who manages to introduce the world to his scientific world and keep them interested. Too bad we cannot get someone like Sacks to write some of our textbooks because they are too dry, without showing the practical applications of the science. Sack's was lucky in having a family with immense background in the sciences, who spent their entire lives performing or doing science in some way. Very few of us have access to the equipment and the materials needed to do lab science at home, but Sacks did have access to this stuff and he certainly made the most of it.
Sack's stories include information about his big family and their great variety of work in the sciences. His descriptions of his family members, his memories are filled with both love and awe for their patience with him and his interests in sciences which sometimes were not the same as theirs (his mom and dad wanted him to be a physician, and not a chemist).
Sack's books are usually compendiums of short stories, which make for interesting reading. He has had so many intriguing forays into different fields of chemistry, and his ability to remember the textbooks and the books that famous scientists from that golden age in England and Germany are phenomenal in the recall. I remember the teacher in science who made such an impact on my perception of science, and I am only too aware of how short we are in obtaining good science teachers and introducing science programs into public schools. Maybe reading this book will encourage other young people with talent to look into science as a career possibility.
Karen L. SAdler |
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| "Memory is Precious" | 2007-03-15 |
| - Reviewed By pale_green_horse |
I loved reading this book for multiple reasons, but I will restrict myself to mentioning two. The first is that it is a well constructed story with excellent writing---a combination I cannot resist. The narrative moves at a pace to engage and captivate the reader without making the story just a rush to get to the next page. Writing that is thoughtful makes sure that the reader will savor and think about the events presented. This is worth a read merely to have the understanding of one more perspective presented well.
But there is more to the book that makes me give this an enthusiastic five stars. As a chemist I was delighted to read a book that gave insight into this space of history of the chemistry profession. The history is two-fold: first it is a history of childhood enthusiasm for science and second it is a history of chemistry in the middle of the 1900s. many a child is enthusiastic about something. For all those children who loved science but never had the means to explore this book will bring sadness at what they lost for not being given such freedom and support. But the book also brings joy at reading that someone, somewhere had the chance to be the brilliant child you always thought you were. Today we highly restrict certain chemicals and also have an emphasis on safety in working with all chemicals. Sacks presents a time period when chemistry and science in general was done with little concern for safety. Instead of glossing over things Sacks presents information and experiments without deluding the reading into thinking it was perfectly safe.
This book is an excellent exploration of multiple themes that are well worth thinking about. I challenge anyone to read it and not find something in it that doesn't provoke some thoughts about what you are doing now with what you are enthusiastic about or what you loved childhood and now have lost as an adult. |
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| "If you rated it poorly, you'll never understand." | 2006-07-15 |
| - Reviewed By tmcoyle |
I ran across this book quite by accident, on the bottom shelf of the Engineering section in the bowels of a major brick-and-mortar bookstore. Perusing the first few pages convinced me to give it a try. I was hooked, and devoured the book in two nights.
There are enough reviews here to give you a feel for the book. My only point for writing this is that those who have given the book poor reviews simply don't "get it", nor, likely, shall they. If you grew up with an avid interest in what makes the world work, wore out VHS tapes of Cosmos, and were reading Gribbin, Rucker, and Asimov (nonfiction) in second grade, you "get it" and will adore this book. Sacks's voracious appetite for knowledge at this young age mirrored my own, and his enjoyment of discovery for discovery's sake made me nostalgic of my own youth within the first few pages - an amazing testimonial of the timelessness of his relevance, given the nearly-50-year difference in our ages.
Note: I'm a professional manager of computer geeks, not a chemist. |
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| "A Chemical Childhood" | 2006-05-28 |
| - Reviewed By tithonia |
Oliver Sacks is one of my favorite authors and I especially like his autobiographical-chemical tome "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood." I read it a while back and never reviewed it, but on the second reading while flying from El Paso, Texas, to Washington, DC, recently I was so delighted with it that I thought that I would put in my 2 cents worth.
I was lucky enough to meet Oliver Sacks about the time I read this book the first time and had a chance to talk with him (with a group of students) for a few minutes after his lecture. He is certainly a very interesting man and well versed in a number of fields.
His book on his early life and his association with chemistry as a nearly all consuming hobby was in many ways somewhat echoed in my own childhood- except I became consumed by both astronomy and chemistry in my teens. Still, like Sacks, I performed a number of experiments with a friend of mine that would now curl the hair of any parent, and in the process learned a lot about chemistry (it was my favorite science after biological sciences in college). Also like Sacks I became a biological scientist, but in a different specialty. Unfortunately I had no relatives who remotely understood my interests and I do envy him for his uncles and even his parents, who were not always so supportive, but did give him a love of learning and science.
Sacks has written an account of his early life with its sorrows (being sent away to a boarding school run by a sadistic head master during the Blitz in London) and the ecstasies (chemistry, books, science history and even marine biology)of a young boy caught up in the pure love of science and life, despite the trials. The book is simply charming and shows what a resourceful child can do, even under often difficult times, to make his or her life interesting and even joyful.
I recommend this book highly. It will brighten up any reader's day. |
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