When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi
- Shalini Prasad
- Nov 18, 2017
- 2 min read
I had recently finished reading ‘The Immortals of Meluha.’ Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on the sequel books to that story. I needed a book to occupy my time, and heaven knows I can’t have a period of time in my life where I am not at least pretend-reading a book. So, I asked this bookish friend at work if she would be willing to let me borrow one of the books in her collection. She was not only willing but also super excited to be suggesting books to another. Let’s face it, we all love doing that.
The next day, she placed in my hands a book by author Paul Kalanithi. He was a neurosurgeon and writer, who grew up in Kingman, Arizona and graduated from Stanford, then Cambridge, and then Stanford again. He had written this book at the end of his mortal days. Yes, he was a dying man at the age of thirty-six.
In the foreword, Abraham Verghese recalls for us the simple interactions between Paul and him, their first and only meeting and about keeping in touch with him through emails. He paints a pretty good picture of the person Paul was. You wouldn’t want to skip this part.
The prologue to ‘When breath becomes air’ is about Paul Kalanithi finding out that he has cancer. Prior to accepting the diagnosis, there is a period of time where he is a state of denial, not even mentioning the word ‘Cancer’ out loud for fear that his mentioning the word would fling it into his reality. His struggle with being hopeful for a better future against accepting that he may not have one becomes way too real as you continue reading.
As I read about the young Paul Kalanithi trying to figure out what meaning a human life holds in the brief time frame that we have, I find myself wondering the same things. His words have beautifully described the transition of life into the quiet of death. He talks about everyone and everything that contributed to his learning about his search in life. His form of writing will resonate in your heart and mind long after you have closed the book and put it aside.
We all know that we are going to die and we have been witnesses for death at least once in our lives. But no matter how much you read about, see others go through it, death is always something you can never be prepared for. All you can do is accept it and go through it with dignity. I have not witnessed many people go through death, but I doubt anyone could go about it with as much grace as Paul Kalanithi. This brief glimpse of Paul’s struggle tears at my heart and makes me hope that everything will get better even though I know how his story ends.
He is a man I have never known about before reading his book and he will be a man I will mourn for weeks to come.
I would highly recommend it to everyone I know.
Rating: 4.5/5
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