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Sacks’ scholarship and his accessibility are his finest qualities. Indeed, one of his greatest achievements is to have attained great success despite doing unconventional, humanistic research, rather than the usual natural science approach. Nonetheless, how many readers know any opera by Janacek much less know it so well as to have it run through their mind unbidden for weeks? While Sacks never comes across as elitist, it is clear that that he is part of a cultured society, in the heart of medicine and the humanities.

Sacks’ personal taste for music and the arts pops up frequently in the book and will no doubt be stimulating for readers with similar backgrounds. Musical savants are also intriguing, but Sacks has discussed them in previous works. That story was turned into a well-regarded film, just as “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” has been turned into a one-act opera. Individuals who have acquired musical hallucinations as a result of deafness or seizures are interesting but perhaps not quite as gripping as those in “Awakenings,” the book about patients with sleeping sickness (encephalitic lethargica) who recover upon being prescribed L-dopa. Sacks more or less invented the genre of the serious-but-accessible book on the brain, and the novelty of his achievement has naturally dimmed somewhat with time. “Musicophilia” is disappointing in some respects, compared to some of his 11 other books. Yet, he never regards them as just data points, and he is adept at communicating their personalities and dilemmas in a page or two. Indeed, that seems to be his life’s work: examining people with neurological oddities to see how the brain works. His voice is humane and caring, and he seems to value the various patients who have helped him understand neurological oddities. Sacks wears his scholarship lightly and uses an accessible vocabulary.

“Musicophilia” shares many of the fine attributes of Sacks’ previous books, such as “Anthropologist From Mars” and “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.” “Musicophilia” is well written and easy to follow, well within the capabilities of an introductory student. He discusses absolute pitch (otherwise known as perfect pitch) and rhythm deafness, which sometimes occurs following left-hemisphere strokes. (Great musical talent is sometimes present, but not always.) He describes individuals with dementia, with seizures, and with aphasia and how these conditions relate to musical skill or interest. For example, Sacks speaks with curiosity and respect about individuals with Williams syndrome, which involves severe developmental disabilities accompanied by a great sociability and a proclivity for music.

Oliver Sacks has created another fascinating book that discusses a realm of human nature (the love of music and musical skill) through his lens as a neurologist. Reviewed by Craig Cowden, PhD, Tacoma Community College, Wash.

Oliver sacks book musicophilia