Richard Cytowic

Richard E. Cytowic, MD, MFA is best known for bringing synesthesia—the involuntary coupling of the senses—back to mainstream science after decades of obscurity.

Professor of Neurology at George Washington University, he received a Pulitzer nomination for his New York Times Magazine cover story about Press Secretary James Brady, shot in the head during the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, with David Eagleman, received the Montaigne Medal. His latest book is Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age.

Speaking venues include NASA, the Library of Congress, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Smithsonian, and cultural institutions worldwide. Dr. Cytowic is a fellow of the Southampton Writers Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences.

Book Reviews by Richard Cytowic

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“This book promises high stakes, and then fails to deliver.”

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“Officials forcibly remove her to the New York School for Girls where she is essentially imprisoned and turned into an indentured servant.

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“A dynamite cultural history account that focuses laser-like on the fraught translation of Edward Albee’s 1962 searing stage play about marriage . . .

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“This book will appeal to film and television enthusiasts of all ages, provide a deep dive for film buffs and an entertaining revelation for others merely interested in movies as entertainm

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“It didn’t help Tippi Hendren’s career that the actress told him what she thought of him: You’re a fat pig.”

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“A fussy old queen asks the ladies whom he’s invited to tea and elderberry wine, ‘What have I got to hide?’ to which Miss Marple in her delicious English ignorance says, ‘I’m sure I wouldn’

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“One night the growth detaches from the girl’s scalp and that’s when the story gets really interesting.”

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“‘Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.’”

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“My husband of 26 years just died and, ironically, I am reviewing a book about writing obituaries by James Hagerty, the long-time obituary writer for The Wall Street Journal.”

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Joyce Carol Oates’ tales are unsettling, disquieting, some endings left hanging, leaving readers with questions that implicate more horror yet to come to

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“This book is annoying from the get-go. Most annoying is not knowing the fundamental rule of suspense. . . .

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“First published in Sweden in 2020, the novel is eerily prescient in its depiction of Russian duplicity and ruthlessness. It even has a nasty thing or two to say about Vladimir Putin . .

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“A beautiful sentence stops you cold. You savor it not only for what it says but also for the way it is written.

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“As if his father weren’t enough of an obstacle, a stint with the Jesuits tried to beat every spark of original thought out of Cajal.

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“Jonathan Alexander’s emphasis on what he envisions to be a unique narrative form detracts from what the book actually is—which is well worth a read.”

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“He is that most American of species, the entirely self–made individual. There is nothing like him, never has been, and never will be.”

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“It is not our circumstances that get us worked up, but the judgments we make about them.”

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“Hyperbole and exaggeration are the definition of camp, an air of performance also part of the package, and Walker’s characters obligingly give the impression of always being always in desp

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“‘Why am I here?’ he keeps asking, up until his inevitable execution at which point his keeper finally answers: No more questions.’

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“Forty-eight brief and provocative chapters provide much to consider. Is it too much to call this latest book magisterial?

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“The premise that cognition and consciousness are traits that arise not solely from the brain but also involve the body, or soma (as in the common word ‘somatic’), is not new.”

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“The time of someone’s death doesn’t exist until Sapere Aude calculates it, forcing the waveform to collapse. ‘You do the math, and it makes the math come true.’”

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“The machine persona is not unlike a human psychopath: it lies perfectly, without compunction or any sense of shame.”

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“Perhaps because Poirot is less a person than principle—a method of detection that is meticulously logical and orderly—he has transitioned easily from print to radio to stage, and from ther

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“‘I’m real, you’re real. And real people don’t die and come back, regenerated into a hundred versions of themselves.’”

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Emma, a distinguished psychiatrist speaking at a conference in her hometown of Berlin, treats herself to an overnight stay at the posh conference hotel. She steps out of the shower.

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“Drinking was a group hobby . . . Food, its accoutrements, and above all the sensuous pleasures of eating formed the leitmotif of his life.”

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“What does it mean to be secure? And from whom, or from what? . . . We are all in danger, and all bound to protect one another whether it’s in our job description or not.”

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“Illness is nothing if not a narrative: the present isn’t what the past was supposed to lead up to, and the future holds God only knows what.

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“Noumenon wasn’t just a place for subdimensional sentients to visit. It was so much more. . . .

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“Accept that you might have conventional horizons. Stop asking for life to be a poem. Why is it so difficult to speak plainly without allusions to books, films, and art?”

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“‘Murder him. . . . I can’t see any other way out,’ counsels Abbé Pierre as he hands Yvonne the lethal drug. . . . ‘You’ll grieve. You’ll mourn.

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Quantic holds the pacing taut and sustains the tension for 270 pages before finally revealing the truth.

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“Reality isn’t what it appears to be. Our perception of reality is a construction of the brain, and science is achieving what decades ago seemed impossible.”

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“My trainer believes in me,” Remington Alabaster tells Serenata, his wife of 32 years. Until now he has been a reliable couch potato, she an equally predictable fitness maven.

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“When a dangerous trick goes awry one evening and threatens to kill her, Thalia unexpectedly shape-shifts.

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“We didn’t emerge as a species sitting around. Minds are situated in a brain and the physical body of which it is a part.”

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“The book reads like a late–night infomercial touting a miracle gadget, more like the operation manual for a new car than a step-by-step guide. It asks too much of the reader.”

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“The challenge of making something from almost nothing is met by using the right words ‘frugally, parsimoniously.’ With the right words we can make the reader go places he could never imagi

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“To Boomers, the Gabor sisters were a TV staple. . . . For decades they were Hollywood blondes and Broadway glamour gals. And then they were no more.”

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“grab your secret decoder ring and your blaster, strap yourself in for liftoff, and enjoy. . . . The pictures in this book are reason enough to buy it.”

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“Rarely has Europe produced anything finer in terms of piercing analysis or moral subtlety. . . .

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“Hockney’s creative output had taken a marked turn. Working in three dimensions changed his relationship to space. It enhanced his vision further the way his deafness had . . .

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“Darwin worked only ‘a couple of hours a day and spent a lot of time taking long walks.’ Just imagine yourself doing the same. ‘How fun would that be?’”

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“The wall means having no choices. It means a bone-crunching ordeal of loneliness, isolation, hunger, and most of all penetrating cold.”

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“A hybrid tale of legal thriller, psychological suspense, and ghastly murder . . . dark and twisted, it will keep readers awake well into the wee hours.”

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“This is really a book about healthy ageing from the authors’ highly particular perspective—and it turns out that the fountain of youth is full of germs.”

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“A delicious read about the terrifying, inexorable, and sometimes brutal power of romantic passion—always thrilling, sometimes desperate, shockingly dark.”

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“Another book by a productivity guru that aims to help us cope better with daily distractions. The verdict is mixed.”

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“An overblown title signals a kitchen-sink approach—too much, too repetitive, too speculative. The molecule of more has taken over judgement and discernment.”

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“If ever a book were to be called magisterial, this one is.

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“Swiping our smartphones reorganizes the brain’s sensory-motor maps for the hand.

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“Do I know too much, or too little?” he asks. Very much an anti-reductionist, when he sees a flock of birds floating on air, he doesn’t think numbers or gravity.

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“He takes the reader on a journey from single cells, to nervous systems, to self-conscious, self-directed minds. One can’t fault him for lack of vision or ambition.”

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“It is startling to realize that some of our most cherished memories may never have happened.”

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“No other species puts so much effort into exploring imaginary territories, nor does it seem so determined to turn the make-believe into the real.”

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“A cautionary tale of mining life for one’s art. And of giving one’s fantasies too much free rein.”

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“Answering questions you would never have thought to ask, Charles Spence reveals how eating and taste have everything to do with the brain and almost nothing to do with the tongue.”

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“Another tale by Womack that can’t be put down. Superb storytelling. Rounded characters. Stakes worth killing—or dying—for. This is summer reading for every season.”

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“Byrne touches on a broad array of forces that influence and shape the musical experience—from how it is created, performed, recorded, and distributed to more personally meaningful aspects

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“A corrective look at Leonardo’s first 27 professional years when he was snubbed, struggled, and departed Florence thwarted and penniless.”

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“We are only charged with loving people. The rest is not our responsibility.

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“Why are futurists so often wrong, and why do we even listen to them given their poor track record?”

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“What might this be?” Such an innocuous question—such profound results. No psychological concept has penetrated culture as much as “the Inkblot test” has.

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“An engaging suspense thriller despite its major gaffe in the ending’s twist. Novel in its concept and construction, this is one unsettling book.”

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“Move over Hitchcock, P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, and more. Here is a thriller to make others fade.

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What makes a tool superior to another . . . has nothing to do with how new it is. What matters is how it enlarges or diminishes us.“

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“Walker’s stories intersect the tipping point when big city gay life went from carefree hedonism and glitzy self–indulgence to the moment when self–satisfied habitués of the demi–monde bega

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“Everyone is disabled. Love exists for our disabilities. And forgotten things, though they remain forgotten, have a life of their own.”  

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Daniel Levitin wants us to eat our spinach, an unsavory chore for an increasingly innumerate society.

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“A debut novel with an intriguing premise. . . . What is left when everything is gone? What does it mean to be alive in the universe and the grandeur of vast emptiness?”

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“What a fun book this is. The plot moves. It twists. What we fear will happen does happen. Then unexpected complications set in.

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“Don’t read this book if you live alone in a remote cabin. Don’t read it if you whistle in the dark to settle your nerves. Its creepiness will unsettle you but good.”

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Why does Star Wars speak to billions? Studio heads hated it. The actors thought it ridiculous. George Lucas feared catastrophe.

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“What she describes is the end of childhood as we once knew it.”

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“An art installation that challenges [and shows] that preconceptions are the enemy of new ideas.“

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“If you want to win The New Yorker cartoon caption contest, read this book. Read it, too, for a behind-the-scenes peek at the enterprise that makes us smile.”

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“We neglect our bodies because we underestimate their intelligence . . .”

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“A beautiful and unstinting look at the inner thoughts and difficult choices made by writers who dig past the false self to confront a truer, more honest version of themselves.”

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“It helps for readers to have a taste for the quirky, the offbeat, and the unusual.”

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“So many years suppressing a secret . . . In the end, the mechanism of the Game proved irrelevant.” Which also goes for this disappointing book.

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“A modern parable about loyalty to others, fidelity to one’s convictions, and the self-effacement needed to bear the consequences of living by one’s beliefs.”

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The first pages grab the reader with images of half-remembered lives that struggle to hold on to what they imagine is their identity.”

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“Solitude has; loneliness wants. It isn’t about being alone, but about missing significant connections that feed our need to belong.”

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“What you say and what the other hears won’t coincide. There are gaps between . . . what we say and what we mean.”

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“How glibly addicts deceive themselves.”

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"The lack of direct immersion and the increasing rarity of actual face-to-face interactions are the true cause of our anomie . . .

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“will her recipe that combines research, personal anecdotes, and social media feedback prove superior to existing advice, or will it fall like a failed soufflé?”  

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“The algorithm was the equivalent of giving the world a blood test, taking its temperature, assessing its mood.”

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“Anything we practice repeatedly changes the brain; fixate on iPhones and similar screens, and we become better at staying helplessly glued to them.”

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“There was something really interesting going on somewhere just beyond the edges of what our eyes could see.”

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“Just in time to address those extra holiday pounds comes a practical guide to natural sugars and artificial sweeteners that explodes some long-held myths along the way.”

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“Taste happens in our head, not in our mouth, and the art of the table today is as robust as it was in the 18th century.”

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“Fast computers coupled with biological knowledge can let us understand the workings of a wedge of actual brain tissue.

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“If you wear clogs, recycle diapers, and think it is fun to live in a hovel then this book is for you. Otherwise, the going is iffy.”

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“A deeply felt story of human survival; of friendship that endures and abides the twists of fate; and the ability to see beauty in the world as it is, no matter what degradation of the plan

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“Our minds were designed to succeed in an environment utterly unlike the information overload we now face.

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“For some readers the science of Red Joan will resonate; for others, the politics will hold their interest; othe

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“An eyewitness to the discovery of Tutankhamun, but also to a secret hidden for decades: That Lord Carnarvon broke into the tomb before the official opening and removed articles for his per

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“What a delight when a writer hits his target as deftly and with such beauty as Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt does in Invisible Love.”

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“Generations are more different from each other now than at any time in living memory.

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“In this book religion is actually the MacGuffin, the object in a suspense story that sets up the plot and keeps the chain of events in motion . .

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“The world is a better place for Dr. Churchland’s efforts and her curiosity.”

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“. . . about the innate knack everyone has to reason about the minds of others. . . .

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How this book is supposed to impress intelligent readers is only something that publicity managers can imagine.

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“We are not observers on the outside looking in. We are on the inside too.”

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“Everything we can touch and all that we are is made of the most beautiful geometric patterns.”

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“Until one understands what incentives motive people, it is impossible to predict how new policies will actually work.”

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“Our lives are built almost entirely on a foundation of events colliding.”

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“Everyone dwells in one past or another, and to a greater or lesser extent, is ruled by it.”

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“. . . delivers nothing close to an understanding of how [Dawkins] came to be the popular scientist . . .”

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“The Goliath Stone is brain candy, a fast read, and surely a sci-fi fan pleaser. Good for the beach or the hammock.”