Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (Hardcover)

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Amazon.com Review
Oliver Sacks's luminous memoir charts the growth of a mind. Born in 1933 into a family of formidably intelligent London Jews, he discovered the wonders of the physical sciences early from his parents and their flock of brilliant siblings, most notably "Uncle Tungsten" (real name, Dave), who "manufactured lightbulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire." Metals were the substances that first attracted young Oliver, and his descriptions of their colors, textures, and properties are as sensuous and romantic as an art lover's rhapsodies over an Old Master. Seamlessly interwoven with his personal recollections is a masterful survey of scientific history, with emphasis on the great chemists like Robert Boyle, Antoine Lavoisier, and Humphry Davy (Sacks's personal hero). Yet this is not a dry intellectual autobiography; his parents in particular, both doctors, are vividly sketched. His sociable father loved house calls and "was drawn to medicine because its practice was central in human society," while his shy mother "had an intense feeling for structure ... for her [medicine] was part of natural history and biology." For young Oliver, unhappy at the brutal boarding school he was sent to during the war, and afraid that he would become mentally ill like his older brother, chemistry was a refuge in an uncertain world. He would outgrow his passion for metals and become a neurologist, but as readers of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat know, he would never leave behind his conviction that science is a profoundly human endeavor. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly
Sacks, a neurologist perhaps best known for his books Awakenings (which became a Robin Williams/Robert De Niro vehicle) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, invokes his childhood in wartime England and his early scientific fascination with light, matter and energy as a mystic might invoke the transformative symbolism of metals and salts. The "Uncle Tungsten" of the book's title is Sacks's Uncle Dave, who manufactured light bulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire, and who first initiated Sacks into the mysteries of metals. The author of this illuminating and poignant memoir describes his four tortuous years at boarding school during the war, where he was sent to escape the bombings, and his profound inquisitiveness cultivated by living in a household steeped in learning, religion and politics (both his parents were doctors and his aunts were ardent Zionists). But as Sacks writes, the family influence extended well beyond the home, to include the groundbreaking chemists and physicists whom he describes as "honorary ancestors, people to whom, in fantasy, I had a sort of connection." Family life exacted another transformative influence as well: his older brother Michael's psychosis made him feel that "a magical and malignant world was closing in about him," perhaps giving a hint of what led the author to explore the depths of psychosis in his later professional life. For Sacks, the onset of puberty coincided with his discovery of biology, his departure from his childhood love of chemistry and, at age 14, a new understanding that he would become a doctor. Many readers and patients are happy with that decision. (Oct.)Forecast: This book is as well-written as Sacks's earlier works, and should get fans engrossed in the facts of his life and opinions. Look for an early spike on the strength of his name, and strong sales thereafter.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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66 Reviews 5 star:  (50) 4 star:  (9) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:  (3) 1 star:  (4)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (66 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   30 of 32 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A mesmerizing tour of the elements, August 20, 2002 By  E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    "It often happens that the mind of a person who is learning a new science, has to pass through all the phases which the science itself has exhibited in its historical evolution." (Stanislao Cannizzaro, Italian chemist, 1826 - 1910). These words had a powerful resonance for Oliver Sacks. When the gifted neurologist wrote his autobiography, he also wrote a history of chemistry as recapitulated through his own childhood experiences. He grew up in a very scientific family--his mother and father were physicians, and his uncle Dave (the 'Uncle Tungsten' of the title) was both a chemist and a business entrepreneur, who "would spend hundreds of hours watching all the processes in his factories: the sintering and drawing of the tungsten, the making of the coiled coils and molybdenum supports for the filaments, the filling of the bulbs with argon..." Uncle Tungsten allowed his nephew to perform chemical experiments in his laboratory, which contained samples of almost every element. Oliver's "physics uncle," Uncle Abe had a small telescopic observatory on top of his house, where he demonstrated the wonders of spectroscopy to his nephew: "The whole visible universe--planets, stars, distant galaxies--presented itself for spectroscopic analysis, and I got a vertiginous, almost ecstatic satisfaction from seeing familiar terrestrial elements out in space, seeing what I had known only intellectually before, that the elements were not just terrestrial but cosmic, were indeed the building blocks of the universe." No wonder young Oliver grew up with a love for the elements and their chemistry! Rarely do I read an autobiography and envy the author his childhood--most recent examples of this genre, e.g. "A Child Called 'It'" are grim, wailing texts--and that's not to say that Oliver didn't have his bad moments, too. He endured two horrible years at a Dickensian boarding school while London was being bombed by the Germans. For the most part though, his formative years were spent in a fantastic 'castle of the elements' where his "many uncles and aunts and cousins served as a sort of archive or reference library" to his enquiring mind. In "Uncle Tungsten," Dr. Sacks shares his learning experiences with us and in the process, writes a far more lucid history of chemistry and physics than any I've ever found in a textbook. He also takes his readers on a mesmerizing, personalized tour of the elements. If you enjoyed P.W. Atkin's quirky "The Periodic Kingdom" or Primo Levi's wonderful memoir "The Periodic Table," I can almost guarantee you'll fall in love with "Uncle Tungsten." Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Rediscover the curious child in you!, December 9, 2001 By  J. Sansoni (Merced, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Oliver Sacks, best known for writing about the fantastic consequences of neurological abnormalities (Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), takes us on a journey through his childhood in Uncle Tungsten. Deftly mixing the most intriguing aspects of the history of chemistry with his own experiences as a boy and adding the spark of a unique writing ability, he's utilized the principles of chemical lab work to produce something new and different--a book that revels in the most fundamental aspects of exploring the physical sciences. Sacks was fortunate to be born into a family heavily composed of scientists: physicians, chemists, physicists, and metallurgists, like his "Uncle Tungsten." Both of his parents were physicians and indulged his curiousities by allowing him to set up his own lab in their house, where he familiarized himself with the history of chemistry by recreating many famous experiments and also trying many more of his own devising. Descriptions of his family life and his exploration into science are filled with wonder and with love for the world we live in. Uncle Tungsten is a book to relish--written in everyday language, not in stuffy scientific terms--a book filled with the joy of youth, the fascination of discovery, and the wonderment of life. I would recommend it to anyone interested in science and nature, to anyone trying to understand those around them who love science so much, and to anyone in junior high or high school who wonders why they have to study chemistry! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   30 of 33 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars God thinks in numbers, July 22, 2008 By  H. Schneider "Hermit" (window seat) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (Paperback) There are some surprises here: first of all, I honestly thought Sacks is a normal American, probably family immigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. No, he grew up in London as the youngest boy in a huge family of Jewish scientists, physicians, and industrialists. 100 cousins! Some family branches in South Africa, Palestine, Germany and elsewhere. Also, I expected a normal autobiography, despite the ominous subtitle 'memories of a chemical boyhood'. I thought I would find out how the man got where he was to be much later. No, we don't. We only learn about his first 14 years. And we learn a lot about the history of chemistry, probably more than most readers would have opted for. But we also learn the following: A boy grows up in a huge house in London with a huge family, everything is paradise, there is emotion (from Ma) and stimulation (from all) and whatever a little boy needs. Then there is WW2 and the boy and his elder brother get evacuated to a boarding school, which is the prototype of all horrors. Bullying drives the brother into paranoia and the hero into closing the shutters with science and chemistry inside and the rest of the world outside. He is liberated after 4 years and moves back home, but things are not what they were. He remains in his insulation. He ignores the events of the world. Politics incl. Zionism is bullying. He dislikes the punitive God of the orthodox. He is only a chemist. With puberty and the end of WW2 the infatuation ends, or rather goes subterranean/subcutanean. Sacks learns new things, among others he discovers marine biology, and he reads Cannery Row, which makes him long for America. (previous mentioning of literature is sparse, there is some interest in Wells' science fiction, and there is a fascination with 1984, but that is obviously ahead of itself) I give it only 4 stars, because I do not like chemistry quite as much (as I worked for a chemical company for 20 years.) Comment Comments (15) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 66 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful! This is the most delightful book I have read in ages. The reader is carried along by the sheer joy of discovery - the "pleasure of finding things out". Read more Published 2 months ago by A. Sivertsen 5.0 out of 5 stars overall very happy book shipped a little slower than I liked BUT within the allotted amount of time. In excellent condition!!! Better than expected. Overall, very happy. Published 4 months ago by Mrs. Bee 2.0 out of 5 stars This was not a bad book, it just wasn't my cup of tea... I greatly enjoyed _The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat_, but this book, simply put, was too dull for me. Read more Published 5 months ago by Yolanda S. Bean 5.0 out of 5 stars School isn't necessary for an education Fascinating read about a young boy's exposure to science and science history. Consider it as a gift for a science-minded youngster. Published 8 months ago by M. Nichols 4.0 out of 5 stars You're reading WHAT ?!? If you love Sacks writing, read this one. Okay, I'm interested in chemistry, but regardless, one reads this book for the anecdotes. Read more Published 10 months ago by OperaTenor 4.0 out of 5 stars Luminous: The Majesty of nature and science We follow in young Oliver's footsteps as he discovers the evolution of science from its humble beginnings through a succession of remarkable and revolutionary leaps. Read more Published 12 months ago by Vladimir Levin 5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable in many ways This book has many wonderful aspects. One of them is Sacks' somewhat nonchalant description of what was a truly traumatic boarding-school experience. Read more Published 13 months ago by Jonathan Groner 5.0 out of 5 stars Uncle Tungsten This is the second copy of Uncle Tungsten for me. I bought it when it was first released, loved it, and, unfortunately, loaned it to one too many friends. Read more Published 14 months ago by Patricia A. Folley 5.0 out of 5 stars Uncle Oliver The relationship between uncle and nephew is the most precious. Why? Because nephews confide in uncles like they don't confide in a father or mother. Read more Published on July 18, 2007 by Raul Rodriguez 5.0 out of 5 stars I wish all children were introduced to science like this! Sigh...as a science educator who sees students turned off of science in spite of it being much more interesting and useful then English and history, it's frustrating to read about... Read more Published on May 15, 2007 by K. L Sadler Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 66 customer reviews...

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