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Review by Michael Sims
Oliver Sacks is fascinated by the ways of the human brain. As Clinical Professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, he has made it his business to learn as much as possible about his favorite subject. Fortunately for us, he also writes clearly, which enables us to share his insights.
Sacks's combination of intelligence, compassion, and graceful writing promote the case history to a species of literature. His subjects have included a surgeon afflicted with Tourette's syndrome, an autistic child who unerringly draws the world from memory, and of course a certain man who mistook his wife for a hat.
In The Island of the Colorblind, Sacks extends his range even further. It is as much natural history as case history, as he explores the islands with his various guides. Along the way Sacks reveals his passion for raising ferns and his fascination with such naturalists as Darwin & Co. The result is a tropical travel narrative fully worthy to stand beside its Victorian forebears.
The new book consists of two separate narratives about trips to four islands of Micronesia -- Pingelap, Pohnpei, Guam, and Rota. On the first two, Sacks investigates the hereditary total colorblindness (an extremely rare disorder elsewhere in the world) that affects as many as ten percent of the population. Accompanied by a Norwegian scientist who is himself colorblind, Sacks proceeds, as usual, to make the very act of perception new and startling.
In the second part of the book, "Cycad Island," Sacks explores Guam and Rota. On Guam, he tries to understand the nature of a progressive (and fatal) neurodegenerative paralysis. And, among other adventures, he encounters "snakeouts" -- power outages caused by the incredible number of tree-climbing snakes that overrun the ducts and transformers of electrical systems. A stowaway aboard a ship, the snake eventually drove every bird species on the island to extinction.
Islands are isolated laboratories of biological evolution, and have recently become the favorite metaphor for expressing the uniqueness of our entire endangered planet. Sacks reminds us once again that what is true for the rest of nature is true for humanity. To keep his narrative moving along, he relegates more technical matters to notes in the back of the book, where he talks about evolution, time, and exploration. Don't overlook that section; it contributes a great deal to the wonderful story.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.