Thursday, February 11, 2016

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Why would anyone willingly pick up a book written by a man dying from terminal cancer? Because it isn't a book about dying, it is a book about trying to figure out what it means to live.

Paul wanted to understand the link between life, the mind, and medicine. He wanted to know what link between life and the physical brain existed so he went into medical school and trained and became a very talented, compassionate, much loved, neurosurgeon.

He was young, full of life, talented, and had a pretty great life when he found out he had terminal cancer. But that didn't end his life, it just changed the path and shortened it. In the relatively small number of pages Paul will move you, make you laugh, make you think, and then his wife will make you sob in her epilogue.

Paul and Lucy make themselves open and vulnerable to share their life and pain. Paul will tell you about how he learns that you are dying from the day you are born and it is how you fill the days in between that matter and he will do it in such a way that you will feel like you know him by the end.

Please read their words.

(Finished February 11, 2016)

No comments:

Post a Comment