"The Man Who F rgot How to Read", by H. Engel

"The Man Who F rgot How to Read" is a surprisingly even tempered, unemotional memoir of a rare condition called alexia sine agraphia - the ability to still write but would almost immediately forget what he or she wrote or read. Compounded, the author, Howard Engel is, by profession, a writer (if something like this could be compounded in any profession).

Its hard not to wonder, 'if that were me', how emotional and angry the natural reaction would be. Engel too said as much but maybe by maturity he was able to find alternative routes to the same ends; It probably says more about my own immaturity. "I was beginning to feel like an eunuch in a harem" he once thought, working with authors and writers before he himself finally put pen to paper creating his own novels. "I saw the trick done every day, but I wasn't doing it myself". But then to have this happen later in life would have been almost unbearable to most. But Engel's stoic determination can only be marvelled at.

This memoir travels through much of his time up to, during, and the recovery of from his stroke. Alexia by definition is "word blindness" which seems somewhat counter-intuitive "for one thinks of reading and writing as going together...that someone should be able to write" and read what they have just written. The the brain is a funny piece of hardware, illustrating that something we take for granted as operating in sync with each other, actually uses different parts of the brain.

As a source of inspiration "The Man Who F rgot How to Read" is essential reading for anyone who may for a moment takes for granted what may seem like a natural, air breathing exercise for the bibliophile.

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