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Book Cover
Book
Author Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015.

Title The island of the colorblind : and, Cycad island / by Oliver Sacks
Edition First edition
Published New York : Knopf ; Toronto : A.A. Knopf Canada, 1997
©1996

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  617.75909966 Sac/Iot  AVAILABLE
Description xv, 298 pages : illustrations, maps (some color) ; 22 cm
Series Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015. Island of the colorblind
Summary 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
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 colorblind, 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
Analysis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Guam
Chamorro (Micronesian people) - Diseases
Color blindness - Caroline Islands
Cycads - Guam
Dementia - Guam
Medical anthropology - Micronesia
Micronesia - Description and travel
Parkinson's disease - Guam
Pingelap (Micronesian people) - Diseases
Notes Colored maps on endpapers
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-280) and index
Subject Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015 -- Travel -- Guam.
Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015 -- Travel -- Micronesia (Federated States) -- Pingelap
Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- Guam.
Chamorro (Micronesian people) -- Diseases.
Color blindness -- Caroline Islands.
Cycads -- Guam.
Dementia -- Guam.
Medical anthropology -- Micronesia.
Cycads.
Parkinson's disease -- Guam.
Medical anthropology -- Oceania.
Pingelap (Micronesian people) -- Diseases.
Physicians.
Travel.
SUBJECT Micronesia http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85084871 -- Description and travel. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99001278
Genre/Form Personal Narrative.
Personal narratives.
Author Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015. Cycad island
LC no. 96034252
ISBN 0676970354 (Toronto)
0679451145
Other Titles Island of the colorblind ; and Cycad island
Cycad island