READ: My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor’s memoir of her stroke, at the age of 37, brings the experience of stroke to the reader. Because understanding stroke requires some knowledge of the brain, Taylor presents a couple of chapters on brain anatomy. She then goes on to describe the gradual loss of her ability to function in the left-brain sense: unable to keep facts in order and use simple mathematics during the singular experience of the stroke itself, she had to figure out a way to recall and retain the crucial telephone numbers that would bring help, for example. The stroke, a hemorrhage on the left side of her brain, affected her ability to sense the boundaries of her body, her speech, her memory, and the focus of her perceptions. In fact, it gave her access to a profound experience of oneness and overwhelming joy. Her recovery involved much re-learning, with the help of her mother, a former mathematics teacher, and took eight years.
I enjoyed three-fourths of this book very much, and was impressed with the determination with which Dr. Taylor took on the arduous task of re-educating herself. Her good cheer radiates throughout the book, a joy she experienced during and after the stroke, attributed by her as the rule of her right brain.
However, the last couple of chapters read more like new-age spirituality and self-help psychology than memoir, invoking many recommendations on how to stay cheerful and in the present moment. Although they testify to Dr. Taylor’s experiences, I could have done without them and would have enjoyed reading further details on Taylor’s years of re-learning and the angst of regaining her identity as a scientist, when so much of her memory had been hidden from her during the recovery.
It’s such a quick and easy read that I finished it in just a few hours.
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