Gratitude

Essays

By: Oliver Sacks

Narrated by: Dan Woren

Length: 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A deeply moving testimony and celebration of how to embrace life. No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death.

“A series of heart-rending yet ultimately uplifting essays….A lasting gift to readers." —The Washington Post

“It is the fate of every human being,” Sacks writes, “to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.” Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life.

“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”
—Oliver Sacks

“Oliver Sacks was like no other clinician, or writer. He was drawn to the homes of the sick, the institutions of the most frail and disabled, the company of the unusual and the ‘abnormal.’ He wanted to see humanity in its many variants and to do so in his own, almost anachronistic way—face to face, over time, away from our burgeoning apparatus of computers and algorithms. And, through his writing, he showed us what he saw.”
—Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal

©2015 Oliver Sacks (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Oliver Sacks was like no other clinician, or writer. He was drawn to the homes of the sick, the institutions of the most frail and disabled, the company of the unusual and the 'abnormal'. He wanted to see humanity in its many variants and to do so in his own, almost anachronistic way - face to face, over time, away from our burgeoning apparatus of computers and algorithms. And, through his writing, he showed us what he saw." (Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal)

interesting, personal, but very brief.

I had expected to hear the article sent to the NY TIMES in addition to some final thoughts. But the article is not part of this audio.

Interesting and short

Thought there would be more to this. What was there was good but it seemed more like the beginning of a book, rather than the whole thing.

An Uplifting Hour of Reading

The following paragraph is the best excerpt of text I've ever read:

“There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate—the genetic and neural fate—of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death. I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

― Oliver Sacks, Gratitude

To the Point, Yet Told From the Heart

Mr. Dan Woren, as narrator, wonderfully captured the feeling behind Oliver Sacks' words. I very rarely read nonfiction, yet I was drawn to Mr. Sacks and things I had heard about him over the years. This narrative did not ramble on...it very succinctly put into sharp focus the ending chapter of Mr. Sacks' life...as I hope to understand my own last chapter...and to convey it to those I know and love, as simply and heartfelt, as he did. I enjoyed this and can see myself coming back to re-listen, just for the pure pleasure of doing so and further thought.

Great!

I am really like this audio book. nice content. excellent narration in this content.
Fantastic story

Short and nothing new.

What did you like best about Gratitude? What did you like least?

I'm a huge Oliver Sacks fan and so ordered this without really reading the description. It is great if you unfamiliar with him and new to his works, but I found this extremely brief, and consisting entirely of repeats of things i had read by him elsewhere.

moving.

I've read all of Oliver sacks books deeply moved to have one last visit with this remarkable man

Sadness

As I finish this book I am filled with sadness, as if an old friend is saying goodbye. I have read many of Dr. Sacks books and he feels like a good friend over the past four decades of my life. I am not sure if this book would be understood by someone who has not read his other books. The book is short, not even an hour in length. It is not a book to read if you wish to feel happy after. It is a nice goodbye though so know this if you read.

good one

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Simple beauty

Anyone who lives Oliver will feel blessed to have heard these beautifully honest end of life words. Enjoy your day. You're alive.