Take a photo of a barcode or cover
cocoonofbooks 's review for:
When Breath Becomes Air
by Paul Kalanithi
It was interesting to read this so close on the heels of Being Mortal. The similarities are obvious; both authors are Indian-American doctors writing about mortality and the meaning of life. But while Gawande takes a journalistic approach, Kalanithi's book is largely a memoir of his transition from doctor to patient as he faced his own terminal diagnosis. I've read memoirs of people who have died, and I've read memoirs of people whose loved ones have died, but I don't think I had read a memoir of someone whose own death was imminent and immediately preceded the book's publication.
As Abraham Verghese notes in the foreword, Kalanithi's writing conveyed well that his love of literature was equal to his love of neuroscience and neurosurgery. Working in literary allusions and quotes as appropriate without relying too heavily on them, he writes eloquently about his decisions at each stage of his diagnosis, and how knowing that his time was limited didn't really change the fact that he didn't know how much longer he had. He kept returning to this idea of knowledge of time, saying that how to focus his next week depended on whether he had 3 months or 2 years or 10 years still ahead of him, whether he should spend time with his family, write, or try to return to neurosurgery. Given his uncertainty, he ended up doing a little of everything, and left the world richer in many facets because of it.
The book isn't long, but it's definitely worth a read. Bring the Kleenex.
As Abraham Verghese notes in the foreword, Kalanithi's writing conveyed well that his love of literature was equal to his love of neuroscience and neurosurgery. Working in literary allusions and quotes as appropriate without relying too heavily on them, he writes eloquently about his decisions at each stage of his diagnosis, and how knowing that his time was limited didn't really change the fact that he didn't know how much longer he had. He kept returning to this idea of knowledge of time, saying that how to focus his next week depended on whether he had 3 months or 2 years or 10 years still ahead of him, whether he should spend time with his family, write, or try to return to neurosurgery. Given his uncertainty, he ended up doing a little of everything, and left the world richer in many facets because of it.
The book isn't long, but it's definitely worth a read. Bring the Kleenex.