A REVIEW OF WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR BY PAUL KALANITHI
“Death, so familiar to me in my work, was now paying a personal visit”.
“What patients seek is not scientific knowledge that doctors hide but existential authenticity each person must find on her own. Getting too deeply into statistics is like trying to quench a thirst with salty water. The angst of facing mortality has no remedy in probability”.
“I would have to learn to live in a different way, seeing death as an imposing itinerant visitor but knowing that even if I’m dying until I actually die, I’m still living”.
These are a few of my favourite quotes from the book. I read When Breath Becomes Air at the recommendation of a friend. And I remember the night I read it clearly, because at the end, I found myself weeping as if I had known Paul Kalanithi. But I guess in a way I had, because I had just followed him on an intimate journey through his life as he battled stage IV metastatic lung cancer.
When Breath Becomes Air is an autobiography by Paul Kalanithi, who at the age of 36, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, was diagnosed with lung cancer. It details his life and his fight against the gruesome illness and his attempt to answer the question: ‘What makes life worth living?’ Having to review this book and actually rate it seems inappropriate to me — how exactly do you rate someone’s life? But I will tell you what I loved about this book.
I loved that it was honest and intimate in an uncomfortable kind of way. I loved that it highlighted other aspects about Paul besides being a Neurosurgeon — he was also a husband, father, brother, mentor and writer. I loved that he tried to highlight the gap in the doctor-patient relationship — as an aspiring doctor, this is one thing I have come to fully and thankfully understand. I loved that he was not ashamed to admit that there were problems in his marriage and how he might have failed as a husband. I loved that he knew that he was a man with faults and worked hard to be a better version of himself. I loved that he chose to share his story with the world, as scary as that might have been. I am sure by now you get the gist: I love this book and I think anyone who reads it will.
John Green in his famous book, The Fault In Our Stars, wrote, “Sometimes you read a book and it fills you with an evangelical zeal and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until living humans read the book”. When Breath Becomes Air is that book for me. I do not think I can convey how wonderful this book is, because you have to experience it for yourself. Only then will you get it.
Jibuaku Ogochukwu,
400L, Medicine.
