The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Oliver Sacks)

The title The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat first came to my attention in an advertisement for an opera, which was, unbeknownst to me, inspired by the book. I was offput. It was nonsensical, and I dislike nonsense. I did not buy the opera tickets, and then I forgot about it until I heard a discussion of agnosia on a podcast. This book was a key component of that discussion, and I realized that it was not nonsense, but medical science. The author, Oliver Sacks, is a neurologist, and the book is a collection of his case studies.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was originally published in 1970 and had a second run in the mid-1980s with followups on the patients and information from newer studies on similar cases. Obviously, medical and social advancements have occurred since then, and some of Sacks’ terminology, such as “moron,” “imbecile,” and “retarded,” is downright cringe-worthy now, but used without a hint of insult here. Sacks’ empathy for his patients is obvious, and he has a gift with words uncommon among medical professionals. When you read his stories, you’ll realize that these conditions could happen to you, or to someone you love, at any time, for no reason. It’s sobering. But Sacks’ attitude is optimistic and encouraging, and his viewpoint is fascinating.

A scene from the 

Indianapolis Opera production

(from http://jayharveyupstage.

blogspot.com/)

The book is divided into four sections: Losses, Excesses, Transports, and World of the Simple. Each section features case studies of patients in that category. For example, Losses describes patients with a neurological loss or deficiency, including the man in the title, who loses his ability to recognize objects and people by sight. It also tells the story of a “disembodied” young lady who had a devastating response to a drug and can no longer sense the position of her body. In contrast to Losses, the Excesses section includes cases where a neurological function is overactive, for example Tourette's patients who have too much nervous energy, and a case of Cupid’s Disease, where exaggerated libido is triggered by previously latent syphilis. Transports describes people who experience fantastic visions and auditory phenomena, as well as incredible recollections. Finally, World of the Simple describes patients with intellectual disabilities ‒ and their surprising gifts and skills.

Oliver Sacks, Brooklyn Book Festival, 2009

(© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons)

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is neatly structured and easy to follow. Sacks has a formal, florid writing style, and there’s a fair amount of medical terminology, but don’t be intimidated. The book is accessible. Just have your dictionary app handy. You’ll want it every now and then. I hope that, someday soon, more postscripts will be added to address medical advancements since the last publication. Even so, you’ll put this book down with new empathy for the ill, new awe for the human brain, and if you’re neurologically healthy, gratitude for your wellness.

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Burr (Gore Vidal)

You probably remember Aaron Burr as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. To be honest (and humble) (and ashamed of my history education), before I read Gore Vidal’s Burr, I didn’t even know that. But Vidal’s novel will tell you much more about this infamous man and maybe even convince you that he’s not such a villain. He’s flawed, yes, but he’s also principled, and he bucks a corrupt system.

The people in this novel (except the narrator) are real, researched historical characters﹣everyone from the presidents to the prostitutes﹣and all events (with three exceptions which Vidal notes) are also established history. Of course, detailed dialogue is necessarily construed, but it supports the official events. So even though this book falls under “fiction” in my lineup, don’t consider it a fabrication. “Historical novel” is the genre the author ascribes.

The story begins when Burr is old but still spry and newly married to a wealthy French widow. The narrator, Charlie Schuyler, is Burr’s young law clerk, but he prefers his side gig as a newspaper writer. Burr asks Charlie to write his biography and gives him drafts of his history from the time he was a young soldier in the Revolutionary War, throughout his political career﹣including details of the fateful duel﹣until his fall from society’s graces. During their meetings, Charlie grows to love Burr, but he has also been tasked by a powerful newspaperman to secretly discover whether a scandalous rumor is true: Is Burr is the biological father of Martin Van Buren?

Even though Charlie is the narrator of the novel, the bulk of the book is Burr’s narrative via his own biographical notes. Naturally, Burr comes off as a hero﹣charming and witty, a masterful soldier and military strategist, a balanced politician. But he’s occasionally self-deprecating and admits that he’s a lousy master of his money and his libido. 

The glaring takeaway from this book is that politics has always been a nasty business. The pages are filled with sex scandals, bribes, hot tempers, lies, secrets, irrational egos, and mercenary military plots. There’s great dirt on Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. After reading Burr, you’ll have no rose-colored views of your favorite founding fathers.

Gore Vidal, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, 2008
Photo by Mark Coggins from San Francisco
 - Gore Vidal, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3956646

Gore Vidal is a prolific author, but this is my first reading of his work. He’s eloquent and sharp. He constructs vivid settings. I love his depiction of historical New York City, but especially intriguing is nascent Washington, D.C., while the White House is under construction, and the city is so dank that people hate going there. My only criticism reflects my deficiency, not Vidal’s. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I’m meh on politics, and some of the detail in this book was beyond my scope of interest. But the great writing and history made it more than worthwhile. I recommend Burr the book for its broader perspective on Burr the man, and also on our founding fathers. Vidal helped me see that modern politics is really just politics as usual, since the very beginning of our country.

Check it out on Amazon!