The River of Consciousness explained

The River of Consciousness
Author:	Oliver Sacks
Country:	United States
Published:	October 2017
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan (UK) Knopf (US)
Media Type:	Print (hardcover)
Pages:	237
Isbn:	978-0-804-17100-7

The River of Consciousness is a collection of ten essays by the writer, naturalist, and neurologist Oliver Sacks.^[1] Some of the essays are dedicated to specific figures such as Darwin, Freud, and William James.

Synopsis

The River of Consciousness compiles the following essays:

1. Darwin and the Meaning of Flowers
2. Speed
3. Sentience: The Mental Lives of Plants and Worms
4. The Other Road: Freud as a Neurologist
5. The Fallibility of Memory
6. Mishearings
7. The Creative Self
8. A General Feeling of Disorder
9. The River of Consciousness
10. Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science

Reception

The Chicago Tribune reviewed The River of Consciousness, Praising Sacks' "ability to braid wide reading".^[2] In a review for the Wall Street Journal Laura J. Snyder notes that the volume "reminds us, in losing Sacks we lost a gifted and generous storyteller.”^[3] In a review published by The Guardian the physician Gavin Francis writes: For those thousands of correspondents, The River of Consciousness will feel like a reprieve – we get to spend time again with Sacks the botanist, the historian of science, the marine biologist and, of course, the neurologist. ^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: New Essay Collections For Your Fireside Reading This Fall. Trombetta. Sadie. Bustle. 26 April 2019.
2. Web site: Laidman . Jenni . 'The River of Consciousness' offers another glimpse inside the mind of Oliver Sacks . ChicagoTribune . 26 April 2019.
3. Web site: Oliver Sacks Travels Down "The River of Consciousness". Snyder. Laura. Wall Street Journal. 26 April 2019.
4. Web site: The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks review – an agility of enthusiasms. Francis. Gavin. The Guardian. 7 December 2021.