When celebrated neuropsychologist Paul Broks's wife died of cancer, it sparked a journey of grief and reflection that traced a lifelong attempt to understand how the brain gives rise to the soul. The result of that journey is a gorgeous, evocative meditation on fate, death, consciousness, and what it means to be human.
The Darker the Night, The Brighter the Stars weaves a scientist’s understanding of the mind – its logic, its nuance, how we think about what makes a person – with a poet’s approach to humanity, that crucial and ever-elusive why. It’s a story that unfolds through the centuries, along the path of humankind’s constant quest to discover what makes us human, and the answers that consistently slip out of our grasp. It’s modern medicine and psychology and ancient tales; history and myth combined; fiction and the stranger truth.
But, most importantly, it’s Broks’ story, grounded in his own most fascinating cases as a clinician—patients with brain injuries that revealed something fundamental about the link between the raw stuff of our bodies and brains and the ineffable selves we take for who we are. Tracing a loose arc of loss, acceptance, and renewal,he unfolds striking, imaginative stories of everything from Schopenhauer to the Greek philosophers to jazz guitarist Pat Martino in order to sketch a multifaceted view of humanness that is as heartbreaking at it is affirming.
The idea of weaving mythology, fiction, nonfiction and clinical study notes is an intriguing one, especially when it comes to the mind and consciousness, but I failed to grasp the message Brok was trying to portray which made it difficult to read. The shifts from one topic to another or one theory to another did not transition well; like rambling multiple topics with no direct purpose. I kept thinking that I was going to learn more, feel more, or ponder something deep and moving.... but in the end, it all fell flat to me.
I think this book is a good example of the saying, “jack of all trades but the master of none.” When viewed as a memoir, the stale clinical points takes away the emotion. When viewed scientifically, the mythology gets lost. Each point was decently done, but the overall meaning was missed; at least, to me anyway. I did not feel entertained, enlightened, educated, or moved..... I simply felt nothing when I finished this book. There were times where I was intrigued and wanted to know more about the subject he was speaking of, but he never gave enough detail or explanation to fully satisfy the curiosity I might have had. Maybe someone else is able to see a crucial piece that I somehow missed when reading this book.
*I received this book from Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. This review is entirely my own and in no way affiliated with the author or Publishing company.*
