This book; a True Story only in the sense most historical biographies are, meaning it’s based on what someone says other people said happened; is compelling at the start. That’s partly because it begins with the Gruesome; Phineas Gage is “world famous” for being cranially impaled by a tamping iron; instead of eventually leading into it.

Once the tale of his Horrible Accident is told, John Fleischman is left stretching the rest of Gage’s otherwise unexceptional life out with what comes across as an extended epilogue. He does so by digressing into detailed medical synopses and Science lessons regarding the Brain, comparing what we “know” now to what they knew back in the 1800s.

my rating : 3 of 5

2002