The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat
Wes Lu - 10/8/2019
Oliver Sacks, the author of The
Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Cases, was a British
neurologist who treated many patients during his active years. He writes about
his patients (without using their names as that would be illegal) in many
books, including the one I am going to talk about today.
This book is quite a step away from
the flaming humor of Animal Farm, however it is a welcome one. Today, I
am going to talk about the namesake story of this book, Chapter 1: The Man
Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat.
---
Sacks starts off with a short
description of his patient (named Mr. P) so we can learn more about who Sacks
is treating. Sacks also starts to outline some of the problems, e.g. Mr. P not
being able to see faces, and seeing them where there were no faces. After
seeing some of the problems Mr. P is facing (pun intended), Sacks calls Mr. P
in for an interview, and from there Sacks starts to do some experiments of Mr.
P.
---
I won’t give away the rest of the
book, as it is quite interesting to see how Mr. P responds to the experiments,
although the title does partially give it away. Anyways, I don’t have any
complaints. This chapter (and book) is well written and talks about neurology
in a way that I have never seen in a book before.
Overall, I would recommend this
book to anyone who is interested in the field of medicine/neurology, or simply
someone who wants to read about cool science stuff. They may suit you, or not,
but it is definitely something to consider reading.
P.S.
I know it might have been cheating
for me to write about one chapter, but this book has so much information in one
chapter. Talking about multiple of them would make for a long and boring blog
post that has no coherence, as the chapters aren’t related to each other (this
book is more of a collection). So if it is cheating, I accept it as it is, but
otherwise, “we Gucci”.
At first when I saw the title of this post, I was very confused and thought that it was simply to grab attention, but after reading this review, it seems very fitting and intriguing. This book sounds really interesting as I don't often see that many books about someone like a neurologist describing experiences they've had with patients. Although you only briefly described one chapter of the book, I'm already very intrigued and it is definitely something I might consider reading.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm not normally one for science books, I might have to check this one out. This review intrigued me and so did the title (because how could you mistake your wife for a hat?). You also mentioned that the book talks about neurology in a new way, so maybe it won't be boring like many other books of the sort. Also, I agree with your decision to break up your review into one chapter, as this was informational and easy to read, hooking us one specific part as opposed to a very broad overview of the whole book. I sort of wish I'd done this for my first blog post. May lots of bolognas rain down on your head!
ReplyDeleteAlthough the title makes it sound like a book for children, Your review helped me to see otherwise and I think I might give this book after reading you review. I like how you describe enough of the plot to the reader to give them a general idea of the book but not enough to spoil it. Another great part of your review was when you informed the reader of your post that the book might not interest them if they aren't into books dealing with science. Overall, I'd say this is a good, well written review.
ReplyDeleteI really want to read this book now. It seems very interesting, and very funny. It also seems like it will be very educational, talking a lot about medicine and neurology. I like how you described the first chapter in your review, as sort of a preview of what other chapters might be like. Great review!
ReplyDelete