Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Publisher Unknown
Description
Biography & Autobiography. Literary Criticism. Philosophy. Nonfiction. HTML:“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. 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.” —Oliver Sacks No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death. “It is the fate of every human being,” Sacks writes, “to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.” Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life. “Oliver Sacks was like no other clinician, or writer. He was drawn to the homes of the sick, the institutions of the most frail and disabled, the company of the unusual and the ‘abnormal.’ He wanted to see humanity in its many variants and to do so in his own, almost anachronistic way—face to face, over time, away from our burgeoning apparatus of computers and algorithms. And, through his writing, he showed us what he saw.” —Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal.… (more)
Awards
ALA Over the Rainbow Book List (Nominee — Non-Fiction — 2017)
Original publication date
2015
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Writermala
This book was good; but I expected so much more from it that I was disappointed. Oliver Sacks's writing is inspiring and life even more so and in death he has shown us how to live.
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Four short pieces, written as Sacks was learning that his cancer had metastasized and his time was short. Two of them are interesting meditations on the elements as markers of the years of your life (element 80 is mercury; 82, the last year Sacks had, is lead; and he got a piece of bismuth, element
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84, although he never quite reached that age). The other two are slightly more general, about how Sacks felt about his approaching death, and the life he'd led until then - the title of the book comes from one of these. Very short - a total of 45 pages - with quite a lot of depth in those few pages. Not sweet, exactly, but very rich. Glad I read it - and I'll be recommending it to others. Show Less
LibraryThing member bell7
This slight book contains four short essays written by Oliver Sacks over the last two years of his life: "Mercury," "My Own Life," "My Periodic Table" and "Sabbath." Each are reflections of a life well-lived by a passionate man in his eighties and make for lovely, uplifting reading.
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This book is a compilation of essays written by Oliver Sacks after his diagnosis of terminal cancer in 2015. And rather than expressing dismay or anger at the world for a shortened life, he writes about gratitude for a life filled with beauty and love.
This is definitely a book to read again and
This is definitely a book to read again and
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again to get a glimpse of an amazing man and to hopefully gain some of his grace and optimism. Loved it! Show Less
LibraryThing member Susan.Macura
This is an extremely short collection of four essays by this author who thinks about life and how grateful he is for all he has experienced after a terminal cancer diagnosis. It is a wonderful, uplifting look at how wonderful life truly is and why we should be grateful for every moment.
LibraryThing member Cataloger623
Gratitude was an unexpected pleasure with a twist. It is a series of essays written by Oliver Sacks a famous author but unknown to me, during the last phases of his life. This not a series that you will want to rush through. These are essays that you will want to think about and meditate on.
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Although the essays are about aging and ultimately dying I found them life affirming. They are not religious in nature. Sacks life choices run counter to mine. Yet the essays take on a spiritual quality that went beyond a particular belief system. We meet Mr. Sacks at the eve of his eightieth birthday. He reflects on his past’s years the once vigorous man now frail in body and not in spirit. He is honestly grateful for all that he has experienced write in such prose as to make me want to make it to eighty. The next essay we find we find Sacks contemplating on the recurrence of a life threatening cancer and his impending death. Yet, this not a despairing tome, but one where he gives thanks for years of life during intervening years. I have been given much and I have given something in return. In the penultimate essay Sacks reflects on his childhood in England during the Second World War. The reader begins to see how and why as child Sacks became enamored with the periodic table of elements. We see how this became a vehicle for him to measure his life from birth Hydrogen number one on the Periodic table to his current age Thallium 82 on the Periodic table and his hope for and doubts about reaching Bismuth 83 on the table. We see how while aging he loses friend and loved ones on the way toward our enviable meeting with death. Like a good striptease artist Sacks saves the ultimate chapter to reveal his most personal of details. We gain insights on the mundane how his family practiced the Sabbath to profound personal truths. In this essay the Sabbath is portent of his impending death. Show Less
LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
This really brief book of four essays count among the most moving pieces I have ever read by anyone facing his own imminent demise. Having survived his unusual cancer for almost a decade, he was shocked to discover that although he felt wonderfully well, he was, indeed, now doomed. He took solace
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from his family and his friends, his memories and his accomplishments, recognizing that we all have a finite timeline. After reading his essays, it can only be said that he faced his death with dignity and grace, as well as with an appreciation and recognition of all that life had given him. I was moved emotionally to tears, but I was also moved to hope that I might face my death in much the same way, with an acceptance and a sense of joy for all I had been lucky enough to receive and enjoy as I “shuffled along on this mortal coil”. Show Less
LibraryThing member dooney
Basically a compilation of essays that appeared in the New York Times after the author knew he was dying. The essays are calm and beautifully written. The book is both very simple book and yet complex, as peace is complex to those of us who don't yet understand it. One of my favorite books so far
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this year. Show Less
LibraryThing member chwiggy
Gratitude is an exquisit collection of four essays by Oliver Sacks.Beutifully crafted those essays give a wonderful insight in lived life. And although I am still young, those essays of an elderly man on the brink of his death are unexpectedly moving and touching.
LibraryThing member m-andrews
A set of short yet poignant essays from the final years of Sacks' life dwelling on the meaning and fragility of human life. Here he expresses his gratitude for all of the blessings in his life, while also sharing some of his more intimate hardships. It's always interesting to read of the orthodox
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Jewish faith and family dynamic, especially from Sacks, who shared the difficulties in explaining to his parents his same-sex attraction: it was great to hear of his family visit to Israel, late in his life, in which he was warmly welcomed alongside his partner despite theological disagreements. Sacks admired the small things in life as much as the larger discoveries with a real joie de vivre: it was great to hear of his passion for the periodic table, so much so that his friends would purchase him the atomic element of each birthday milestone. His life ending when it did, meant that he never received any polonium … ! Show Less
LibraryThing member bostonterrio
Loved this short book of essays. Reflections from Oliver Sacks on his longevity and terminal cancer diagnosis. More uplifting than dismal.
LibraryThing member oldblack
Very short work. An interesting perspective on his own life and death from a talented gay, Jewish doctor and author. Sacks felt satisfied with what he had achieved in his life - but what if you are facing death and you feel you have achieved nothing?.
LibraryThing member judithrs
Gratitude. Oliver Sacks. 2015. I found this book on a list from Book Riot within minutes of getting an email from a friend who just found out that one of her best friends had died. As soon as I read the blub I ordered a copy for her and for me. Four beautifully written essays by Oliver Sacks in
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which he sensibly and gently examines his life and his approaching death. No sentimentality, no sense of God, but a strong sense of living a good life and an honest look at its ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member ajlewis2
Four essays as he faces death in gratitude for a life lived well. They are short and to the point.
LibraryThing member JBD1
Four of Sacks' final essays, each lovely and Sacksian. I lament that we won't have any new essays by this wonderful writer: we will not see his like again.
LibraryThing member Fliss88
Not many books I give 5 stars. I knew nothing of this small, short book. I found it at the back of a suitcase, full of small books at the op shop today! It was the authors name that caught my eye, the book missing its dust jacket. I bought it and read straight through in my lunch break. The only
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thing I can add to other reviews is, this is a lovely gentle book, written by a man who was at a place of inspirational peace of mind at the end of his life. Show Less
LibraryThing member JRobinW
Lovely book!