When Breath Becomes Air

Libro bien escrito, del principio hasta el final. Sorprendente la última parte ya que toca la fibra y es muy emotivo.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read. Profoundly touching, it gives you a different perspective on life.

This brief memoir is interposed between a foreword by Abraham Verghese, the brilliant author of “Cutting for Stone” and an epilogue by author’s wife, Lucy Kalanithi. It is a beautifully, heartrending, deeply philosophical piece by an accomplished young man who dedicated heart and mind to his work and study in neurosurgery. He discovers that he has terminal lung cancer at the age of 36, just before completing his grueling neurosurgical residency and embarking on the career he has worked so hard to attain. The book is very thoughtful and reflective in nature, especially upon the meaning of life. It made me wonder if the author was truly always so interested in finding the meaning of life, or if only when told of this terminal diagnosis, that reflection back on his life made this search so apparent. As one nears death, what is most important, becomes glaringly more obvious, and Paul Kalanithi describes this so well.

Abraham Verghese speaks in the foreword of how he had met Paul in person several times before his death, but it was not until he read his book that he felt he really knew him. I too, felt like I got to know Paul through this book. He is very open and honest about himself, his sickness, his relationships, and struggles and triumphs throughout the process of dealing with cancer.

I find it interesting that Paul did not always think he wanted to be a physician, but rather thought he might be a writer. He may not have realized his full potential as neurosurgeon and professor, but he surely achieved his goal to be a writer. He has left behind a beautiful book that will be read for many years to come. It will be of great interest to those with life-threatening disease, their family members, and really everyone, because we will all be in those shoes at some point. He has also left behind a wonderful gift of himself to his daughter. She will not remember her time with him, but she will be able to know him through this book and well as through the memories that I’m sure his close relations will share with her. Aside from writing and even delving back into neurosurgery residency at one point, he spent the last years of his life following his diagnosis, building closer bonds with his family, and the love there was overflowing.

Aside from being an important read for anyone facing a life-threatening illness themselves or loving someone who is, I think it is a very important read for all medical professionals. It puts a face behind a patient, who is clearly able to articulate the thoughts and feelings of being a patient in our medical system. It emphasizes and highlights the importance of the physician-patient relationship.

I gave this book 5 stars for it’s thought provoking, beautiful prose, as well as for writing it’s way through a death with utmost dignity. He strengthens his belief systems, forges stronger relationships with family and loved ones, and finds greater meaning in life once he is given this terminal diagnosis.

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Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon, a scientist, and an English literature and a philosophy graduate degree recipient. And at 36 years old, at the cusp of becoming all he worked so hard to achieve, he got the catastrophic diagnosis that he had terminal lung cancer. This sudden devastation concerning someone so accomplished and so promising is the starting point for a sincere, sensitive, and inspiring journey that you will take with him in his memoir to discover the meaning of existence and the acceptance of the inevitability of death.

In his struggle to stave off the ravages of cancer and deal with the uncertainty of when he will “shuffle off this mortal coil,” he grapples with the most fundamental philosophical questions a human mind and heart and soul can imagine. And we are fortunate that he has written so eloquently and intelligently about those struggles in his memoir entitled When Breath Becomes Air.

This is a hard and a glorious autobiography. It is hard because of the harrowing topic, but it is glorious because of what it teaches us as humans lost in a sea of confusion about the whys of living and the limits of life and knowledge—the search for meaning in a meaningless world. You will be captivated and enlightened by this amazing man, and you will be engrossed by the significance of his life and the meaning of his illness and death. The book is slim (229 pages) but extraordinarily powerful, moving, poetic, and philosophical. You will admire Paul Kalanithi for his decency and humanity, and you will lovingly respect his posthumously published last wondrous gift to us. As his wife Lucy says in her epilogue to the book: “He wanted to help people understand death and face their mortality.” With husband Paul’s wisdom and grace in this memoir, you will.

On a personal level, this book was difficult but important as well. That is because I lost my spiritual father and mentor, who was a physician and psychiatrist, to the same cancer as Paul had. He, too, died too young. But he too would talk about facing mortality, about existential surprises, and the meaning of life. His voice accompanied Paul’s throughout my reading of this work. They were both comforting and inspirational. There is also a dear friend, a psychiatrist who helps many with grieving and is and has been my friend for many years and was my grief counselor. She is also like Paul and my spiritual dad in many ways. She was supportively with me in spirit as well when I was reading this beautiful and powerful memoir.

When Breath Becomes Air is one of the most important books I have ever read, ranking up there with Night by Elie Wiesel and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It is that special.

As expected.