This lyrical, profound, and touching volume was written by Oliver Sacks during the last two years of his life. In this summing up of his life and work, he expresses gratitude for what he has been given by others and thanks that he has been able to give something back through his 12 books — including Awakenings which was made into an astonishing movie.
At 81 years of age, Sacks still swims an hour a day. Nine years earlier, he lost one eye to an ocular melanoma. Now he is diagnosed with a terminal case of liver damage. Facing death, he salutes life:
"I have loved and been loved; … 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."
The author was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family but turned away from religion when he was 18. Craving some "meaning" in his life, he turned to amphetamines in the 1960s and became addicted. Then Sacks found great fulfillment in his career as a neurologist and pioneer of medical narrative. He only briefly alludes to his shyness, his homosexuality, and his extreme immoderation in all his passions.
As he nears death, Sacks feels "a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential." The four brief but poignant essays in Gratitude model for us the challenges of thinking about our legacy to our loved ones and to the world.
