man who mistook reflection

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Reflection

When I began reading “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”, I did not realize that it was a series of different short stories because I declined to read the introduction for some reason. Therefore, at first I was confused as to why the chapters were not following each other with the same storyline. Once I realized what was going on, I was much more pleased with the book because I noticed that I would not have to remember the same plot from the same story once I reached the final pages. It made it a much more enjoyable read because once you are done with one story, you do not have to revisit it again and it seems like your just reading a lot of short stories, which is essentially what you are doing. I almost felt like comparing this book to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales because it is a collection of different stories about people who came to visit Mr. Oliver Stacks. I really enjoyed the fact that Stacks did not talk about these stories in a scientific, dry way. He really brought the reader in by sympathizing with his patients. Being a neurologist, Stacks seems to encounter a wide range of mental disorders that promise to keep his job and his stories interesting.

The story I enjoyed most was the short story “The Lost Mariner”. Although all these stories are sad, I tried to find something good from each one of them. I enjoyed this story because it kept reminding me of the Adam Sandler movie “50 First Dates”. This story is about a World War II veteran who suffered from a syndrome in which he could not form new memories. Much like in “50 First Dates”, where the Drew Barrymore cannot remember anything that happened the previous day, this man cannot remember anything that happened in the past few minutes. It was really a sad story because it made me notice that he could not make any new friendships, and probably had no real friends left besides his family. I cannot imagine waking up thinking it is thirty years earlier than the actual date and seeing all the new technology for the first time every few minutes.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection of short stories. However, I would not read this book again. I feel like one time was enough and reading it again would make it quite boring.