Oliver Sacks

My review of Oliver Sacks’ On The Move has just appeared in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a marvelous book, though it might upset some people with its candor. This is the human being behind the image–and I greatly prefer the human being to the image. Here we find the passionate and intense motor-cycle rider and champion power-lifter, the drug addict and sexual seeker (men, as it turns out). Also the writer, physician, teacher, friend. As is now known, he is dying of terminal cancer, after a long and fascinating life. We have been friends for many years and I love him dearly. He was falsely accused at one time of sexually abusing his patients, by people with their own agenda, and describes himself as “foaming with rage”. He has been kind and understanding in relation to my situation, speaking of “personal spite” and “southern barbarity”. Anyway, I highly recommend his book.