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Oliver Sacks - The Island of the Colour-blind Review By:
Mil
Publisher: Picador/Pan Macmillan
Published: 5 July 2012
Non Fiction
Paperback
Rating: 3/5
Purchase: Paperback or Kindle edition UK/US
Always fascinated by islands, Oliver Sacks is drawn to the Pacific by reports of the tiny
atoll of Pingelap, with its isolated community of islanders born totally colour-blind; and
to Guam, where he investigates a puzzling paralysis endemic there for a century. Along the
way, he re-encounters the beautiful, primitive island cycad trees – and these become the
starting point for a meditation on time and evolution, disease and adaptation, and islands
both real and metaphorical.
Purchase: Paperback or Kindle edition UK/US
Rating: 3/5
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Warning: If you are looking for a light fluffy
easy read, you are in the wrong place. This book is well written, informative and at times very
sad. Oliver Sacks takes off on a journey with visits to several islands but these are no tales
of margaritas by the swimming pool. While our minds usually associate tropical islands with relaxing get
away destinations, sun, sand and care free adventures there are other places that arent as
idilic or as publicised.
Following the introduction to the intrigue which leads to
his trip, Sacks along with his companions arrive first at Pineglap where he begins his quest
to find out how the people of the island deal with this condition. Although as you will learn,
getting to these islands can be quite a challenge all in itself. Plane troubles were only
able to halt him temporarily for embarking on his quest to find the island of the colour-blind.
Following his stay at Pineglap he then goes on to experience Pohnpei, Guam & Rota. At first I found myself
turning the pages at a fairly normal pace but upon his arrival at Guam I became a little
sluggish getting through the book as the encounters with the locals became more heart wrenching
and the diseases became more life destroying. As well as that some of the scientific research
included while interesting can be a bit tedius to read about. I did find myself struggling in
parts but the chapter on Rota was more than enough to carry me over the finish line as the
detailed writing of the forrests and wild life was a refreshing change of pace.
Lots of great stuff packed into this book including stories of military camps using islands as
target practice for their missile testing, think a 4th of July sky with bigger louder explosions,
spam being an island favourite (I still cant for the life of me figure out why) and the
descriptions of the Cycad forrests in Rota.
The book itself is a 226 page read with an additional
100 pages of notes added to the end. Yes, they are necessary as the scientific explanations,
historic recounts and medical conditions throughout the book are probably more than the average
person has stored in their mental roladex.
All in all, if you love reading about islands, history and science, this book is for you.
Others may not find this all too appealing and tough to get through.
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The views expressed here are those of the authors and not
necessarily
those of Dubcnn as an organisation.
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Thank you to Picador/Pan Macmillan for providing a review copy.
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