This is one of those books that is hard for me to rate. Summarizing my thought process: First and foremost, there is Taylor’s story of the stroke itself. The story about a neurologist having a stroke is a fascinating and important one. Second, there is the writing style itself. While this book is certainly not some great piece of literature and the author could have done better with her book overall, this is not the point of it (or most science books) and I am not reading this book as an English major to critique it. I don’t believe she is writing the book wholly as a scientist either, but instead primarily as a stroke survivor and her experience/lessons learned. Third, there is the content itself – in this case, science, and it is here that there are some definite problems. Specifically, the science is over-simplified (right and left brain) and at times inaccurate. This was one of the biggest letdowns of the book. She also uses plenty of anecdotal evidence, although this doesn't bother me quite as much. I don’t know that I would really consider this book to be self-help, per se. The main reason being she doesn’t give the illusion of omnipotence the way self-help books do, although she does repeat the message often that you need to keep believing that you can heal, focusing, working, etc in order to heal. Without knowing her motives or speaking for her, I would guess that she repeats this so often because this is her key point – she wants others to be able to learn from her own experience and have the best chance of healing, should they have a stroke. I agree with her whole-heartedly here and I hate the way the power of belief, the placebo affect and the like are dismissed as insignificant, because someone in a white lab coat says so. Overall, I enjoyed reading the author’s story about her stroke and the resulting changes that have accompanied this experience. Will her experience match everyone else’s? Of course not, different people will have different experiences with healing; they will have their own individual strengths, limitations, genetics, level of motivation, etc. Perhaps in a “right-brain” way, this book was what I needed to read at this time in my life to provide me with an important reminder that, among other things, there is more to the world than pure rationality and to occasionally step to the right.
2022-11-01 11:06
