The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks (PDF)

Description

Oliver Sacks has always been fascinated by islands–their remoteness, their mystery, above all the unique forms of life they harbor. For him, islands conjure up equally the romance of Melville and Stevenson, the adventure of Magellan and Cook, and the scientific wonder of Darwin and Wallace.Drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by intriguing reports of an isolated community of islanders born totally color-blind, Sacks finds himself setting up a clinic in a one-room island dispensary, where he listens to these achromatopic islanders describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and shadow. And on Guam, where he goes to investigate the puzzling neurodegenerative paralysis endemic there for a century, he becomes, for a brief time, an island neurologist, making house calls with his colleague John Steele, amid crowing cockerels, cycad jungles, and the remains of a colonial culture.The islands reawaken Sacks’s lifelong passion for botany–in particular, for the primitive cycad trees, whose existence dates back to the Paleozoic–and the cycads are the starting point for an intensely personal reflection on the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the genesis of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time. Out of an unexpected journey, Sacks has woven an unforgettable narrative which immerses us in the romance of island life, and shares his own compelling vision of the complexities of being human.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐For a through review read the comment by the Dr. Coleman. I will try not to repeat his comments. I have not read Sacks before so I was intrigue to find a medical commentary and travelogue written in a style that was understandable by someone who is not a scientist.I have some minor disappointments. This is actually two different medical commentaries. One about totally colorblind ( a very rare occurrence) groups of people in the Pacific Islands and the other about a group of people suffering from a disease similar to ALS but somewhat different. I would have liked a more thorough discussion of the sociology and psychology of the people who have this. The cause is known and the only “cure” is sunglasses an special training in reading and other coping strategies. I would have like more notes on the life styles, sense of isolation caused by the sun blindness during the day, reaction from “normal” members of the community. Dr. Sacks did not stay on the islands long enough to do a through job in this regard.With regard to the ALS type disease, Dr. Sacks did a far better job of describing the various paths two similar diseases take and the physical and psychological progression of the diseases as well as some comments on the cultural and family reaction to the suffering members. I was fascinated by the various theories that have been raised to explain the diseases and finding no conclusive explanation.The last few pages of my book had a chapter on Dr. Sacks fascination with ferns and how that developed. Though it was a nice comment on his background, I found it irrelevant to the book. Was he required to have x numbers of pages and therefore threw this commentary in? I do not like wasted paper and this seemed like wasted paper.The footnotes were extensive but those that I bothered to read filled in some detail very well. Frankly I read only a few. I question if so many were needed.This book is a little outside of my normal reading tastes. I lean toward sci-fi and biographies with some mysteries throw in. In a sense this travelogue was a little of all three with a never leaning on the mystery of the ALS type disease. I am glad that I took a chance on reading it.

⭐If you are a fan of Oliver Sacks, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. I was first introduced to Dr. Sacks through the film Awakenings, featuring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro. It was this movie with encouraged me to further investigate and purchase the book by the same title. If you have not read Awakenings, I would highly recommend it, and if you have, I would definitely recommend this as the next book for your collection. The first half of the book deals with two islands that have an extremely high number of colorblind people residing there. Your eyes will be opened to what you assumed you knew about colorblind people, and what the truth actually is.The second half of the book deals with Guam, where scores of people are suffering from a debilitating illness with symptoms that mimic the vast and varied symptoms of the post-encephalitis patients we saw in Awakenings. You will discover the mystery surrounding this disease, and the overwhelming task of trying to find a cause of this illness.One of my favorite things about Dr. Oliver Sacks is that when he writes about these illnesses and patients, he is not treated them as just another case. After you read about each individual person, as we did in Awakenings, you feel as though you actually knew the person an experience a portion of the hurt the family feels. Dr. Sacks writes each case with love, and you can feel that he actually loves and cares for these people. Experience an amazing journey on some of the vast illnesses that affect the human brain and thus the rest of the body.

⭐Neat book, nice relaxing read, makes you think

⭐Oliver Sacks was a sensitive writer and a polymath. The Island of the Colorblind is filled with history and science concerning the superficially unrelated topics of neurology and botany. The first part of this book focuses largely on inherited blindness among a tiny Pacific population, and the second part examines a strange illness afflicting the older residents of Guam that in some patients looks like ALS and in others looks like parkinsonism. Some researchers have speculated that the disease may be the result of poisoning brought on by the consumption of cycad seeds, and it so happens that Oliver Sacks harbored a lifelong fascination with cycads and other “living fossil” plants.On one island that Sacks visited, there are many bars serving, not alcohol, but a bordeerline-hallucinogenic fluid, and, in the interest of science and discovery, he drank a great deal in one session. (You have to love Oliver Sacks.)The huge overflow of information in the book makes for a huge section of endnotes. I finally decided, after frustratingly leafing back and forth, to simply blast ahead with the body of the book and then read the endnotes as just another chapter. It worked; the endnotes really do stand on their own.

⭐If you are an Oliver Sacks fan-girl or -boy, you will probably enjoy this. But it is an odd book. There actually *is* no “island of the colorblind, though there are a couple of places where there are more totally colorblind people than usual. And the second half of the book is about Sacks passion for cycads, trees somewhat like palm trees. Yeah, Dr. Sacks has a number of odd passions. His writing is, what shall I say….discursive? Undisciplined? Free-flowing? He has so many ideas, so many experiences, and he has a passion to share them all. If that sounds like a ride you want to take, this book is for you. Me, I liked it.

⭐I found reference to this book in Donald McIntyre’s ‘Colour Blindness: Causes and Effects’, and was intrigued because it deals with achromatopsy, complete colour-blindness, whereas McIntyre focuses on the less severe forms of colour vision deficiency.I can understand the appeal of Oliver Sacks’ writing, and enjoyed parts of this book but, overall, it did not meet my needs. Only 3 chapters – a total of 90 pages – are devoted to his journey to the two Pacific islands, Pingelap and Pohnpei, which are home to significant communities of achromatopic people. These chapters offered some small insights but did not add greatly to my understanding of the world of the totally colour-blind.

⭐The book was sold as very good secondhand. It arrived quickly and the book looks as though it has been barely read.The book is brilliant. Oliver Sacks has a wonderful way of writing and is really clever in describing complex neurological processes in an accessible way. Highly recommend both the author and the seller

⭐I have loved Oliver Sacks for a long time, ever since listening to him being interviewed on Radiolab.The great thing about Sacks is that he always seems to pick interesting topics to write about.I first read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a few years ago (now who could resist such a catchy title) and I loved it.Overall, I think Sacks is always worth reading, he is thoughtful and brings a diverse range of references to his writing in a very natural way.

⭐Did not arrive and seller refused to send another or provide a refund. Nothing but love for the great man Oliver Sacks though.

⭐A very well written book on on popular science. With a rich language, Oliver Sacks explain beautifully several cases of population genetics in islands. Evolution, genetics, geography and epidemiology are blended together in a wonderful story. Plenty of notes that can be separately read as a short histories book on evolution. An essential book edited with great care.

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