Finished 2/12/17 at 9:32 pm

Oliver Sacks was an amazing human; one full of contradictions abound that, in the end, helped us to better understand what it truly meant to be human.

On the Move is Sacks’ autobiography, covering his upbringing in England, his coming out as a gay man, his travels in Canada and the USA and the adventures that lay behind the inspiration to many of his great works (including Awakenings, A Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Seeing Voices and The Island of the Colorblind, as well as his numerous others).

Being someone who loves to write (and read), I hold a special place for books that focus on the craft of writing. Sacks always considered himself a writer — he constantly wrote, both to help illuminate topics to the general public as well for himself.

My favorite passage in the book comes towards the end.

The act of writing, when it goes well, gives me a pleasure, a joy, unlike any other. It takes me to another place — irrespective of my subject — where I am totally absorbed and oblivious to distracting thoughts, worries, preoccupations, or indeed the passage of time. In those rare, heavenly states of mind, I may write nonstop until I an no longer see the paper. Only then do I realize that evening has come and that I have been writing all day.

Honestly, this book just made me miss Sacks, and realize how he lived his life to the fullest and in many ways was a wonderful, complete human. He combined the analytical and artistic in ways that I aspire to do, while also helping to change the lives of his subjects and the public in the process.

Knowing that he was to pass soon after it’s publication only makes it hit harder. One gets the feeling that this is the ultimate reflection on the writing portion of his life —as he watches the ones he cares about and collaborates with pass, or as he finally finds love late in life, your heart breaks knowing that he’ll be leaving us soon.

This book has inspired me to dive deeper into his work, as well as work constantly to perfect the craft of writing — not only as a means of external communication but also an internal one; one that Sacks knew more than well.

Sacks was a great human in so many ways, and I think this book stands as an exemplary monument to a great life fully lived.