Structure

The River of Consciousness is divided into ten essays by Oliver Sacks. Each essay is a stand-alone piece with its own internal structure containing a beginning, middle, and an end. These individual essays are structured and divided by topic, though over-arching themes unifies them, and the book, into a whole. The essays themselves are also subdivided with line breaks as Sacks explores various angles of his topic. Sacks frequently opens and/or closes an essay with a bit of personal narrative or storytelling to provide context to the meat of the scientific discussion which will embody the bulk of the essay. By supplementing this scientific discussion with narrative, Sacks keeps the lay reader interested and pulls him or her through the more complex material with the compelling promise of narrative.

The essays vary greatly in length, demonstrating that Sacks' authorial style when it comes to this aspect...