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A review by vienna_books
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
2.5
I always find it hard to rate memoirs. This is somebody’s real story and should be treated respectfully. It has very high ratings and many people seem to love this book.
That said: it was not for me. I mostly read fiction but I did enjoy memoirs like „Educated“ and „In Order to Live“.
First and foremost:
I would NOT recommend „when breath becomes air“ to anybody who is currently struggling with mental health, especially depression!!!!
I liked the writing and I feel like the author was a great person worth knowing. This book is probably great for people who work in medicine and want to gain the perspective of a patient.
There were chapters focusing on Pauls life before cancer which I sensed were more targeted to people he knew in person. Again I don‘t want to disrespect anybody but these chapters nearly made me stop reading.
Then we got a few chapters about his career and work. I found these interesting but I‘m the kind of person that covers her eyes in medical dramas when they show humans being cut open by doctors. There was a lot of graphic descriptions of medical conditions that had nothing to do with his cancer. I was also not prepared to read about the death of new born twins. Again, not the books fault but it was very depressing to read.
After I finished reading „When Breath becomes Air“ I asked myself: Why did I read this? I don‘t really feel like I‘ve learned something new about cancer. I had expected to maybe take life lessons from it when it comes to the topic of death but I don‘t know… I maybe just could not relate to Paul very well? I feel like I would have appreciated the book much more if I had known the author personally.
I landed on 2.5 stars because to me that‘s the average between 0 and 5. If this was fiction I would have rated it lower.
That said: it was not for me. I mostly read fiction but I did enjoy memoirs like „Educated“ and „In Order to Live“.
First and foremost:
I would NOT recommend „when breath becomes air“ to anybody who is currently struggling with mental health, especially depression!!!!
I liked the writing and I feel like the author was a great person worth knowing. This book is probably great for people who work in medicine and want to gain the perspective of a patient.
There were chapters focusing on Pauls life before cancer which I sensed were more targeted to people he knew in person. Again I don‘t want to disrespect anybody but these chapters nearly made me stop reading.
Then we got a few chapters about his career and work. I found these interesting but I‘m the kind of person that covers her eyes in medical dramas when they show humans being cut open by doctors. There was a lot of graphic descriptions of medical conditions that had nothing to do with his cancer. I was also not prepared to read about the death of new born twins. Again, not the books fault but it was very depressing to read.
After I finished reading „When Breath becomes Air“ I asked myself: Why did I read this? I don‘t really feel like I‘ve learned something new about cancer. I had expected to maybe take life lessons from it when it comes to the topic of death but I don‘t know… I maybe just could not relate to Paul very well? I feel like I would have appreciated the book much more if I had known the author personally.
I landed on 2.5 stars because to me that‘s the average between 0 and 5. If this was fiction I would have rated it lower.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Terminal illness
Minor: Suicide