When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi
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Blurb

For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question ‘What makes a life worth living?’

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated.

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’”

When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

My review on When breath becomes air

Growing up I wanted to be a neurosurgeon, when I heard this book was written by one, it sparked an interest, and I’m glad it did.

To me, Paul’s memoir highlighted how thin the line between life and death is. Picturing how he had to adjust from being a doctor to a patient in the bat of an eye is wild.

I enjoyed reading about the beginning of his adult life. It highlights the importance of finding purpose, making life meaningful, and the journey to achieving your goals. It was great to read as it feels like I’m in that phase of my life.

The second part of the book also came with a lot of feelings and lessons. Finding out you have to live with a terminal illness in your graduation year after 10 years of working your heart out to become a neurosurgeon, is a really hard pill to swallow.

In the end, he accepted his fate and adjusted to being a patient. He died shortly after, leaving his wife and 8-month-old daughter.

Paul had so many questions, and I hope he found answers before death came. Though he couldn’t complete this book before he died, his wife did an amazing job executing his wish of publishing it, as well as the beautiful epilogue she wrote.

One major lesson I learnt from this book is how life is very unpredictable and should be lived to the fullest.