Physician and writer Oliver Sacks recounts his experiences as a young neurologist; his physical passions–weight lifting and swimming; his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists–Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick–who influenced him.