Books in Brief

Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight, by Henry Grunwald (Knopf, 130 pp., $20)

Henry GrunwaLd had begun the memoirs of his illustrious career when he found himself straining to see through his left eye. Two years later, even after myriad, endless sessions with resourceful specialists, the light continued to dim, attacking also his right eye, and now he is a macular degenerate, one of the 15 million in America. This slender book is an account of his travail, a miniaturist’s account of the pathology of the retina’s blockage, its effect on his life, behavior, and thought, and a not- so-hopeful account of the efforts and ideas of the scientists who labor to return full sight to the afflicted. The idea of retinal transplantation is exhilarating.

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Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight, by Henry Grunwald (Knopf, 130 pp., $20)

Henry GrunwaLd had begun the memoirs of his illustrious career when he found himself straining to see through his left eye. Two years later, even after myriad, endless sessions with resourceful specialists, the light continued to dim, attacking also his right eye, and now he is a macular degenerate, one of the 15 million in America. This slender book is an account of his travail, a miniaturist’s account of the pathology of the retina’s blockage, its effect on his life, behavior, and thought, and a not- so-hopeful account of the efforts and ideas of the scientists who labor to return full sight to the afflicted. The idea of retinal transplantation is exhilarating.