An Anthropologist on Mars

Seven Paradoxical Tales

By: Oliver Sacks

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

To these seven narratives of neurological disorder, Dr. Sacks brings the same humanity, poetic observation, and infectious sense of wonder that are apparent in his best sellers Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. These men, women, and one extraordinary child emerge as brilliantly adaptive personalities, whose conditions have not so much debilitated them as ushered them into another reality.

PLEASE NOTE: Some changes have been made to the original manuscript with the permission of Oliver Sacks.

©1995 Oliver Sacks (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"True to his past work, he offers compelling stories told with the cognizance of a clinician and the heart and compassion of a poet." ( Library Journal)

Read this book

I was a bit annoyed by the narrator (his great voice has nothing to do with it). He seemed like he did't fully understand what he was reading. I would listen the book if the author himself read it.
The stories were good but they were repetitive. Exactly same wording was used multiple times in the same chapter.
I still recommend you to READ it.

Not as good as the man who mistook his wife for a

Interesting stories but could have been much better with some editing, some parts just go on too long. I had to force myself to get through some of it.

always interesting

The brain is fascinating. the book goes off topic a bit sometimes. but is well worth listening to if you like his other books.

Anthropologist with a philosopher’s mind

This is the kind of book you wish you had read with others merely because it has revelations and insights everyone should have and you want everyone to have them with you.

Some parts feel like anthropological Notes, others medical, others like the intimate impressions in a poetic diary, and you’re not sure as a reader if you’ve just experienced a new revelation or something that you understood all along.

Oliver Sacks is one of a kind. I miss him greatly.

Good performance; insights dated

I have read or listened to almost all of Sacks's work and consider myself a fan. In this collection, he has some interesting insights about memory. But the collection was published in 1995 and there has been major progress in the way we understand and treat autism (it's 2021). The last couple of chapters feel really dated and even offensive in their lack of understanding/empathy toward the subjects-- even if this was perhaps groundbreaking at the time.

A Book on Autism - Not on Astro-Anthropology

I was all set and ready for some kind of odd 'life on Mars' book - but no - this is a 'famous' book on autism - or savants in this case, which, after I realized what the book was about, held my interest nevertheless. What stayed with me (to this day - a few months later) was one of the autistic subject's statements: "I needed to know the 'Big Answers' (which she never got, not having the Philosophy of Broader Survival at hand) - which I found curious - for I also needed to know the Big Answers in order to function at all in life, so I developed a new philosophy while finding the broadest answers to them (the said Philosophy of Broader Survival),

This book is inspirational, since it also spurred me to write the book A Philosophy for the Autistic (at least for those who need to know the 'Big Answers' in order to function in life), and then to write books addressed to other troubled demographies, such as Inmates, Sociopaths and Psychopaths, Parents, and Third Graders (so far). So I found the book inspirational, and it made me want to help those who needed to know the Big Answers (since I could, having found the Big Answers) (see the philosophy).

Past and still in used perspectives on mental health

This was an interesting pick at the past, but unfortunately still very much on use perspective of mental health. It was even shocking at some points, but you have to remember that this book was written more than 2 decades ago. We still have a long way to go to understand and normalize mental health in general and neurodiversity.

Favorite book by Sacks, full of humanity

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book more than the others by Sacks that I've read (Awakenings; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat). The way he has framed this collection of case studies -- as explorations of the humanity of seven patients with various neurological conditions -- lets his storytelling shine. In other books, where it was just as much patient case study as scientific exploration, Sacks's tendency to speak in metaphor and supposition got int he way. In this book, it is an advantage. We get to know the seven patients and how they interact with the world through conditions that we generally consider illnesses, disorders, or pathologies, but how in some ways their "otherness" makes them who they are. A really thought provoking and often touching set of essays.

a fascinating look at the human mind

This is classic Oliver Sacks! His details are exquisite and, while the anatomical and medical information may be detailed for many readers, it is surrounded and engulfed in compassionate observations of not only the neurological function, but the human drama of neurological dysfunction. anyone with a friend or family member with Tourette's Syndrome or Asperger's or Autism Spectrum disorder would find this a must-read.

paradoxical indeed

a painter who becomes completely color-blind (not your regular red-looks-black colorblind). A surgeon with Turette's. A blind man to whom retina function, but not brain function, is restored and then what happens. No one but Sacks could tell these tales of neurology, a science as complex and nuanced as genomics, but much more concrete.

The narration is good, and reminiscent of Sacks himself.