Oaxaca Journal

Sacks' blend of travelogue, history, botany, friendship and humor made for a delightful, informative read.

I have never admired anyone as much as I do the unforgettable Dr. Sacks. I have read almost all his books but had skipped this one because, having a black thumb, botany has not been a part of my life. But I recently heard an old interview with Dr. Sacks. When asked which of his books he would most recommend for a reader who knew nothing about his works, he cited Oaxaca Journal. It does not presuppose any knowledge of the subject, and was constructed from the notebooks he kept during the trip. It is an entertaining travelogue, with "side trips" into Meso-American history, economics, and technology.

This book, like nearly all of Sacks' work, is a delight. I bought this in advance of a trip to Oaxaca, and while it's not exactly full of travel tips, it's a wonderful travelogue, and a peek inside the mind of Sacks and his fern-obsessed compatriots.

Dr. Sacks accompanied a group of botanical friends on a trip to see, catalogue, draw, and take delight in the unparalleled variety of ferns in Oaxaca, Mexico. His resulting journal is a meditation on Zapotec culture, amateur naturalists, edible insects, psychedelics, and above all ferns: seemingly so fragile yet having survived, with little change, for over 300 million years.According to the author, his "sense of a prehistoric world, of immense spans of time, was first stimulated by ferns and fossil ferns."For someone like myself who loves both ferns and the writings of Dr. Sacks, this journal is a treasure. It was composed under the blue sky of Oaxaca and filled with an emotion that Dr. Sacks admits is usually foreign to him: joy.The author is fond of reading natural history journals and he has created a multi-faceted gem of his own, out of observations on lost civilizations, mescal, cochineal insects, plants as rare as horsetails a hundred feet high, and others as common as the bracken fern.Half of our property in Michigan is covered with bracken ferns and I was always curious as to why insects didn't seem to bother them. According to this author, bracken is regarded as the 'Lucrezia Borgia' of the fern world: "the young fronds release hydrogen cyanide as soon as the insect's mandible tears into them, and if this does not kill or deter the bug, a much crueler poison lies in store. Brackens, more than any other plants, are loaded with hormones called ecdysones, and when these are ingested by insects, they cause uncontrollable molting."The Romans used bracken on their stable floors because it arrested or perverted the development of fly larvae, although Dr. Sacks doesn't specify how the ancients kept the horses from eating their bedding. Bracken also poisons mammals, and humans who eat too many fiddle-heads over a long period of time are apt to develop stomach cancer.It is tempting to open up "Oaxaca Journal" and reread an essay equally as vivid as the riff on the 'Lucrezia Borgia of ferns.' There are so many choices. By writing a journal for the National Geographic 'Literary Travel Series,' Dr. Sacks has opened himself up to every conceivable subject under the blazing Mexican sun.There is indeed joy in this book.

This book was really a gift for my wife, who is a biologist and really enjoyed reading about this field trip experience. It was a perfect book to read together. The excitement of finding plant species was familiar to her, the descriptions of local foods, customs, and cottage industries was fascinating, and the discussions of subjects of interest to the author added a special touch.Why four stars instead of five? We found the book to be very good, but we like to save five stars for the truly outstanding.

I love Oliver sacks' writing style. This is an impressive compilation of his journal entries discussing ferns and other natural History gyms found in Oaxaca Mexico.

Not necessarily about Oaxaca as so much about a fern trip. Still there's a feeling of the city and countryside. It is a nice way to ease into vacation.

Fascinating observations on just about everything he writes about.

Loved this little book. Totally quirky, weird, fun, deep, and it will inspire you to return to Oaxaca and see it all with the eyes of Oliver Sacks. A wonderful read!

Tra i molteplici interessi di Oliver Sacks eminente neurologo c'era anche la botanica, socio del giardino botanico di New York, ed in particolare per le felci, piante elementari sopravissute a molte ere geologiche nei luoghi piu' disparati del mondo. Con un gruppo di 18 iscritti alla AFS (societa' americana per lo studio delle felci) all'inizio del 2000 si e' recato nello stato messicano di Oaxaca, dove ne esistono centinaia di esemplari rarissimi. Il diario del viaggio ne descrive la ricerca catalogazione e descrizione anche con schizzi autografi, ma traccia anche vivide e colorite annotazioni sulla storia e civilta' precolombiane il paesaggio gli usi e costumi locali il cibo divagazioni sulla diffusione planetaria di cioccolato e gomma ...e sui caratteri somatici e psicologici dei compagni di avventura, con un annotazione che mi ha colpito quando segnala la presenza nel gruppo di una coppia lesbian ed una gay, lui non aveva ancora fatto outing e questo accenno pur molto discreto ne sottolinea a posteriori ii conflitto interiore, risolto con la pubblicazione dell'autobiografia di poco precedente la morte. Un piccolo libretto ma prezioso e arguto dietro cui si intravvede il suo sorriso bonario e la conoscenza enciclopedica, io che delle felci conosco a mala pena il filix mas e l'equisetum.

excellent