This book is basically a collection of correspondence but the nature of the writers makes it so meta. Oliver Sacks, of course, is the neurologist who wrote all the fantastic books about the interesting cases he encountered. Susan Barry is a scientist who suffered from an unusual eye condition that was not treated early or understood. Barry wrote to tell Sacks about how she finally got treatment to improve her condition, and she and Sacks developed a several years long friendship that lasted until his death.
The most interesting thing to me is that this is two people who write about the world writing about themselves and sharing their own stories. Sacks was an interesting person because he clearly needed a lot of empathy to understand people the way he did, but he managed to remain relatively solitary, never marrying and living alone for most of his life.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Susan Barry, a neuroscientist and biology professor at Mount Holyoke, had the eye condition strabismus, or crossed-eyes. She had read all of Oliver Sacks' books featuring case studies of physical and mental problems and thought that her recent accomplishment of being able to see in 3D after being told that what she did was impossible, would interest him. Thus began a correspondence between Sacks and Barry that lasted until the death of the famous author. Their letters were mutually beneficial-Sacks wrote her up as one of his cases, naming her "Stereo Sue," while encouraging Barry to write her own books. They helped each other to solve problems in their work, and showed a great talent for humor and compassion. It was a very touching way to document a friendship between two kindred spirits.
I have been a fan of Oliver Sacks for many years, and was able to meet and talk with him myself, so I was very interested in reading this book. Besides giving a new window into Sacks' life and thoughts, Barry wrote extensively about eye problems in children (crossed eyes and lazy eye) which the "experts" maintained were not correctible in later life. The author's case and many others proved them wrong which was a real revelation. However, a lot of their letters dealt with science at a level that was somewhat hard to follow and might be a problem for the average reader. I felt though, that the contents of their letters was actually not as important as the love and respect that they grew to have for one another, and everyone will be able to understand that.