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A review by didireadthat
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
4.0
This was an amazing book; the plot is engaging, and the prose is well written. The story itself is incredible and I think the personality of the author really came through I felt like I knew him well by the end of the book. But the epilogue was the most emotional part and the part of the book that made me turn all of Kalanithi's thoughts inward and start thinking about my own perspective on death.
Minus a star because it felt like it was missing a huge part of the story, and the epilogue made me realize what it was - the rest of his personality. The whole premise was that the author suddenly had to come to terms with his own morality. So, he spends the first half of the book relaying his life before the diagnoses building up the lens through which he sees death so that the reader can understand his perspective and then the second half is about dealing with it. But the whole book is about his medical career and his dream to retire and become a writer. And I understand that with the demanding hours of being a neurosurgeon-scientist he probably didn't have time for much else. But what about his wife, his family, his other collogues? What about his "wicked sense of humor"? what about the rest of his life that was not just reading, med school and residency? The medical side of things was really interesting no doubt but I wanted more.
Minus a star because it felt like it was missing a huge part of the story, and the epilogue made me realize what it was - the rest of his personality. The whole premise was that the author suddenly had to come to terms with his own morality. So, he spends the first half of the book relaying his life before the diagnoses building up the lens through which he sees death so that the reader can understand his perspective and then the second half is about dealing with it. But the whole book is about his medical career and his dream to retire and become a writer. And I understand that with the demanding hours of being a neurosurgeon-scientist he probably didn't have time for much else. But what about his wife, his family, his other collogues? What about his "wicked sense of humor"? what about the rest of his life that was not just reading, med school and residency? The medical side of things was really interesting no doubt but I wanted more.