The island of the colorblind: and, Cycad island

Oliver W. Sacks

Vintage Books, Jan 12, 1998 - Fiction - 311 pages

Oliver Sacks has always been fascinated by islands--their remoteness, their mystery, above all the unique forms of life they harbor. For him, islands conjure up equally the romance of Melville and Stevenson, the adventure of Magellan and Cook, and the scientific wonder of Darwin and Wallace.

Drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by intriguing reports of an isolated community of islanders born totally color-blind, Sacks finds himself setting up a clinic in a one-room island dispensary, where he listens to these achromatopic islanders describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and shadow. And on Guam, where he goes to investigate the puzzling neurodegenerative paralysis endemic there for a century, he becomes, for a brief time, an island neurologist, making house calls with his colleague John Steele, amid crowing cockerels, cycad jungles, and the remains of a colonial culture.

The islands reawaken Sacks' lifelong passion for botany--in particular, for the primitive cycad trees, whose existence dates back to the Paleozoic--and the cycads are the starting point for an intensely personal reflection on the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the genesis of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time. Out of an unexpected journey, Sacks has woven an unforgettable narrative which immerses us in the romance of island life, and shares his own compelling vision of the complexities of being human.


From the Hardcover edition.

What people are saying

Review: The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island

User Review  - Britta - Goodreads

I read this book aloud to my father when he was in the hospital. It made a horrible experience bearable. When I think back, I have wonderful memories of the book. Sacks is such a wonderfully visual writer. He took us both to those tropical isles!

Review: The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island

User Review  - Jacklynn - Goodreads

I love Oliver Sacks' books. This one was about his travels to various island/island groups to study interesting medical conditions occurring in higher numbers than in other places. His books are ...

Contents

• Island Hopping: 3
• Pingelap: 28
• Pohnpei: 58

About the author

Oliver Sacks is a neurologist and author of seven books, including Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars. He lives on City Island in New York.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The island of the colorblind: and, Cycad island; Vintage Series
• Author: Oliver W. Sacks
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Vintage Books, 1998
• ISBN: 0375700730, 9780375700736
• Length: 311 pages
• Subjects: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Guam; Chamorro (Micronesian people); Chamorro (Micronesian people) - Diseases; Color blindness; Color blindness - Caroline Islands; Color blindness/ Caroline Islands; Cycads; Cycads - Guam; Dementia; Dementia - Guam; Dementia/ Guam; Fiction / General; Medical / Essays; Medical / Neurology; Medical / Ophthalmology; Medical / Optometry; Medical / Public Health; Medical anthropology; Medical anthropology - Micronesia; Micronesia; Micronesia - Description and travel; Parkinson's disease; Parkinsonism; Parkinsonism - Guam; Parkinsonism/ Guam; Pingelap (Micronesian people); Pingelap (Micronesian people) - Diseases; Science / Life Sciences / Human Anatomy & Physiology; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Travel / Australia & Oceania