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A review by bookishwelshie
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
inspiring
reflective
4.0
At the age of forty-three, on the 8th of December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive, catastrophic, stroke which rendered his brain stem inactive. He was in a coma for twenty days, and upon awaking, found out he was unable to speak or move his body. He was almost entirely paralysed, but could still blink his left eye. There was also some slight head movements and grunts he could make over time. This would end up being how he could communicate, and blinking at letters is (extraordinarily) how this book was written. He was suffering from a condition called “Locked-In Syndrome”, which must be one of the single worst things to happen to a previously healthy human being. He was previously the editor in chief of Elle Magazine in Paris.
On the 7th of March 1997, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon was published in France. Two days later, Jean-Dominique Bauby died of heart failure at the age of forty-four. So it is an undoubtably an extraordinary book that was written under extraordinary circumstances - so why didn’t I rate it 5 stars? The writing style is naturally a little disjointed and at times pretentious, and I don’t know if this is in part due to the person who wrote it for Bauby or whilst it was translated from French to English. But I appreciate the efforts here for this book to even exist.
On the 7th of March 1997, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon was published in France. Two days later, Jean-Dominique Bauby died of heart failure at the age of forty-four. So it is an undoubtably an extraordinary book that was written under extraordinary circumstances - so why didn’t I rate it 5 stars? The writing style is naturally a little disjointed and at times pretentious, and I don’t know if this is in part due to the person who wrote it for Bauby or whilst it was translated from French to English. But I appreciate the efforts here for this book to even exist.