![]() ![]() His obsession, inherited from his father, with swimming long distances, and the absolute joy he took in it right up until his death. "First Loves" gives a poignant glimpse into his childhood and youth and his idiosyncratic passions. The book consists of previously published and unpublished work, divided into three parts. This, the second volume of his writings to be published posthumously, ranges over some of his many interests, from chemistry to cuttlefish (spoiler alert: in this story from his childhood, the collection of cuttlefish he tried to preserve for study putrefied and exploded in the basement of his friend's summerhouse, blowing "great lumps of cuttlefish all over the walls and floor there were even shreds of cuttlefish stuck to the ceiling"). But his curious mind was unbounded by categories. As a neurologist, he treated and described in marvelously clear and luminous prose, the human brain. Sacks, who died in 2015, was himself an investigator of and fascinating guide to the strange. "There is, among Orthodox Jews, a blessing to be said on witnessing the strange: one blesses God for the diversity of his creation, and one gives thanks for the wonder of the strange," writes Oliver Sacks in a chapter on Tourette's Syndrome in his book Everything in its Place: First Loves and Last Tales. Everything in its Place: First Love and Last Tales **** ![]()
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