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Zusammenfassung von On the Move

Name: On the Move
Rating: 4.6 (72 reviews)
Author: Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

A Life

4.6 (72 Bewertungen)

31 Min.

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On the Move by Oliver Sacks is a memoir that chronicles the author's fascinating, unconventional life as a neurologist, motorcyclist, and writer. It's a captivating exploration of an extraordinary mind.

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What’s in it for me? Learn about the ups and downs of a life that fused science with storytelling.

When he was 12 years old, Oliver Sacks received a prophetic school report. One of his teachers summed up his prospects in a single sentence: “Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far.”

As if to prove the point, young Oliver spent his free time at home conducting hazardous chemical experiments, which filled the house with noxious fumes.

On the one hand, it was a precocious hobby, which reflected his budding interest in science and presaged his future career in medicine. On the other, he was lucky he didn’t burn the house down – and it wouldn’t be the last time his exploits would put his life in danger.

This is the story of how Oliver Sacks did indeed go far. He went on to become a best-selling, award-winning author and an esteemed neurologist, enlightening and entertaining millions of readers with his research and writing. But he by no means walked the straightest of paths to success. In his twenties and thirties, he took quite a few detours and almost went completely off track. For a while, he lived a double – or you could even say quadruple – life: doctor by day; avid motorcyclist, bodybuilder, and drug user by evening and on the weekends.

At one point, he definitely did go too far – almost losing his life to addiction. Fortunately, he lived to tell the tale – a tale that you’ll get an intimate glimpse of in these blinks.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how his mother left a lasting wound on his psyche;
how he discovered his calling after years of turbulence and uncertainty; and
why he almost got blacklisted from his profession right after finding it.

A Taste for Literature

The year was 1950, and Oliver Sacks was 17. Traveling by himself, he’d just completed a cross-country skiing excursion in Norway, and he was about to board a ferry to return to England. At the duty-free shop by the harbor, he purchased some souvenirs to take home with him: a pair of two-liter bottles of aquavit – a strong Scandinavian spirit, ominously labeled “100 proof.”

But then Oliver ran into a little problem. At border control, the Norwegian customs officers informed him that he was only allowed to bring one bottle of liquor into the UK. They were fine with him leaving the country with a second bottle, but their British counterparts would confiscate it upon his arrival to England.

What should he do?

Well, sitting on the ferry’s upper deck in the frigid North Sea air, Oliver started drinking from one of the bottles to help keep himself warm. The other passengers had all taken shelter inside the cabin; Oliver was alone. But that was fine. He had his novel to read. And not just any novel, but Ulysses – James Joyce’s 700-page masterpiece.

He became so absorbed in the book that he didn’t notice the passage of time – or the depletion of the aquavit, which he was gradually draining sip by sip. Before he knew it, the ferry had arrived in England, and the bottle was empty. But Oliver felt completely sober. The alcohol must not be as strong as it claimed to be, he thought.

He stood up – and immediately fell on his face. He was completely drunk.

This wasn’t the first time he’d fallen for a book. A couple of years earlier, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row had inspired him to want to become a marine biologist – the same profession as one of the novel’s main characters. Later, his interests shifted to neurology. But though he always had a scientific bent, Oliver also had a deep love of stories and storytelling.

Part of it came from his mother. When he was a child, they spent hours at a time together reading classic books by British authors like D. H. Lawrence, Anthony Trollope, and Charles Dickens. When he was a bit older, he read the American novels of James Fenimore Cooper, along with narrative-driven books about science, such as Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. And as a teenager, he became president of his secondary school’s literary society – a much more illustrious position than the one we left him in, lying flat on his face on the ferry’s upper deck.

Fortunately, one of the boat’s crewmen found him there and helped him hobble off the boat with the aid of his ski poles, which he used as makeshift crutches.

But although he couldn’t even stand up on his own two feet, Oliver felt triumphant – as if he’d won a victory over the system. As much as they might have enjoyed it for themselves, British customs wouldn’t be confiscating that second bottle of aquavit after all.

Hurtful Words

The next year, right after Oliver turned 18, his father decided it was time they had a talk. Having received a scholarship to Oxford University, Oliver was about to leave his family’s home in northwest London to become a premedical student. Before he left, his father wanted to discuss something that had been weighing on his mind.

The conversation started off innocuously enough, beginning with the topic of Oliver’s allowance and other money-related matters. But then it shifted into what his father really wanted to talk about: Oliver’s lack of girlfriends – and what it meant.

A Talent for Writing

On paper, Oliver’s 20s and early 30s sound like those of the sort of high-achieving person who knows exactly what he wants to do with his life. A premed degree in physiology and biology from Oxford University. A medical degree, again from Oxford. Internships and research fellowships at various British and American hospitals and universities. It was an impressive CV.

But truth be told, Oliver wasn’t sure what he wanted to do during this time. At a couple of points, he was torn between zoology and medicine – and even when he settled on the medical route, he still vacillated on whether he should pursue a clinical or a research career. He also doubted whether his choice of profession was really his own in the first place; both his parents were doctors, and he felt like they’d pressured him into following in their footsteps. Meanwhile, he still had a love for storytelling, and he had aspirations to become a writer.

What Happened in Amsterdam

After graduating from Oxford, Oliver felt like he still had one last thing to do before he became a full-fledged adult. He was 22, and he still had to lose his virginity.

The last year had been a rather dismal one. He’d stayed at Oxford to do a research project, and it hadn’t gone very well. To make a long story short, it involved an experiment with a bunch of chickens, and he ended up accidentally killing most of them. To make matters worse, his research supervisor was practically locked away in his office, totally unsupportive, and most of his friends at Oxford had left after graduating the previous year. Socially isolated and frustrated by his work, he was sinking deeper and deeper into depression.

California Dreaming – An Interlude

If you’d known Oliver during his Oxford days and then ran into him on a weekday morning in 1961, you probably wouldn’t be too surprised by his appearance. Sure, he’s older now – 28. And the backdrop of his life has changed. Wanting to avoid the British military draft and escape the oversaturated UK job market, he’s relocated to San Francisco. But he’s doing the sort of thing you’d expect him to be doing: completing an internship at Mount Zion Hospital.

If you saw him outside of work, however, you might do a double-take. In the evenings and on the weekend, he trades his white doctor’s coat for a black leather jacket. And his name is no longer Oliver Sacks. When he’s on the open road, riding atop his newly purchased Norton Atlas motorcycle, his biker buddies just call him Wolf – his badass middle name.

Altered States

One evening, while living in their shared studio apartment near Muscle Beach, Oliver and Mel were having one of their routine massage sessions together. Mel was lying on the bed, facedown and naked. Oliver was sitting astride him, stripped down to his athletic shorts and rubbing oil onto Mel’s silky smooth back. They’d done this many times before, and it was so erotically charged that it would usually bring Oliver to the brink of orgasm. But there he always managed to stop himself, right in the nick of time.

On this fateful occasion, however, his excitement carried him past the point of no return. He orgasmed, and the semen landed on Mel’s back. Mel stiffened, got up silently, went to the shower, and refused to speak to Oliver for the rest of the day. The next morning, he announced he was moving out.

Downward Spiral

Two months later, Oliver was sitting in a New York City cafe, stirring his cup of coffee, when all of a sudden the beverage began turning colors – first green, then purple. He looked up in alarm and saw a customer paying his bill at the counter. But something was wrong with the man. On top of his neck, there was a giant head shaped like an elephant seal’s.

In a state of panic, Oliver ran out into the street and got onto a bus. Once inside, his terror only increased; all of the passengers had smooth white heads shaped like enormous eggs, and their eyes were huge and multifaceted, like the eyes of an insect.

Epiphanies

By December, 1965, Oliver’s drug habit was causing him to miss work and lose weight at an alarming rate. In three months, he dropped nearly 80 pounds. When he saw his withered face in the mirror, he could hardly bear the sight.

And then, on New Year’s Eve of that year, in the middle of yet another amphetamine-induced state of euphoria, he had an epiphany: if he didn’t get help, he wouldn’t see another New Year’s Day.

Another Headache

In the summer of 1967, at the age of 34, Oliver went back to England for a vacation. While he was there, he experienced a sudden burst of creativity, and he wrote out a first draft of his book about migraines in just a couple of weeks. The words practically poured out of him.

If life were simpler, he would have just delivered the manuscript to the publisher, and the rest would have been history. But, alas, life is not so simple.

The Story Goes On

Although he’d just been fired, Oliver felt a strange sense of relief. Sure, he was now unemployed and about to maybe get blacklisted from his profession, but he was also free to finish his book.

By this point, he’d already finished a draft of the manuscript and secured a publishing deal with Faber & Faber, a British publisher. And, once again, if life were simple, that would have been the end of the story. He would have just polished the manuscript, sent it off for publication, and gone on to become a famous writer who wrote many critically acclaimed books.

Epilogue

Epilogue:

Oliver Sacks went on to become a highly acclaimed author. Over the course of his career, he wrote more than a dozen books. He also continued to work as a neurologist in various hospitals and clinics in New York, where he lived for the rest of his life.

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Worum geht es in On the Move ?

On the Move (2015) is a poignant memoir that tells the story of how Oliver Sacks became an acclaimed writer and neurologist. Published the year of his death, it provides a wistful account of his turbulent young adulthood – detailing his struggle with addiction and addressing his sexuality for the first time in print.

Bestes Zitat aus On the Move

One may be very glib and facile on amphetamines ... but it all blows away, leaving no imprint.

—Oliver Sacks

Wer On the Move lesen sollte

Fans of Oliver Sacks
Readers interested in medical writing
Anyone who likes a good coming-of-age story

Über den Autor

Oliver Sacks was a British neurologist and writer who spent most of his career in the United States. After receiving his medical education at Oxford University, he worked at various hospitals in San Francisco and New York City. He specialized in working with patients with unusual neurological conditions. Many of his books were based on case studies about those patients. They include Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. He also wrote about his own unusual neurological experiences in his books such as No Leg to Stand On and The Mind’s Eye.

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