Grasp When Breath Becomes Air Portrayed By Paul Kalanithi Depicted In Electronic Format

begin with or, maybe, to end with I got to know Paul only after his death, I came to know him most intimately when he'd ceased to be, " Abraham Verghese

And we, for the most part, can actually say the same thing about Paul Kalanithi, We've come to know of him only after he had left this world of ours, Ironically, I write this on Marchth, the oneyear anniversary of his passing,

Paul Kalanithi: son, husband, father, brilliant surgeon, He was a healer whose very existence gave hope to so many, How can this be In my humble opinion, I believe that we are here on this earth for the appointed time of our being, We draw no more breath than what is predetermined by a Higher Being, be it the last, raspy breaths of the elderly or the sole breath of a dying newborn, Paul was here for his personal alloted time,

This book is divided into two sections: before cancer diagnosis and after cancer diagnosis, Many have expressed a disconnect after having read this story, Many were looking for the gentle words of the dying in philosophical terms, The little nuggets were indeed there, But the perspective was all Paul's,

The beginning of the book was both clinical and procedural, That was Paul revealing his sense of "being", . . what it took to become this focused man of medicine and of science, His steps were measured in the direction of his accomplishments and towards the light of a future that was never meant to be,

The second part of the book concentrated on the shifting of his identity from directing physician to the role of dependent patient, His profound knowledge of medicine served him in a limited capacity as he fought against the aggression of the disease, "But I'd had no idea how hard it would be, how much terrain I would have to explore, map, settle, " Much like the rest of us in our stilted human experience,

The Epilogue is beautifully written by his wife, Lucy, She writes: "his transformation, from life to death, the ultimate transformation that awaits us all, "

When Breath Becomes Air should not be taken as a maudlin reading, but one of hope and one of living a life well, no matter what the promise of longevity reveals.




: Update: Just wanted to mention that this book goes on sale today, Its an amazing story!



Paul Kalanithi studied literature at Stanford University, For his thesis, he studied
the work of Walt Whitman, a poet , who a century before, was possessed by the same questions that haunted him, Kalanithi wanted to find a way to understand and describe what he termed

"the PhysiologicalSpiritual Man, "

Kalanithi had a passion for literature, He began to see language as an almost supernatural force, existing between people, bringing our brains, shielded in
centimeterthick skulls, into communion,
"There must be a way, I thought, that the language of life as experienced of passion, hunger, of love bore some relationship, however convoluted, to the language of neurons, digestive tracks, and heartbeats.
"

Paul Kalanithi's thesis was wellreceived but neuroscience as literary criticism didn't quite fit in the English Department, nor did he. There was a question he couldn't let go of, "Where did Biology, morality, literature, and philosophy intersect",

Kalanithi consulted a premed advisor set aside his passion for literature and figured out the logistics to get ready for medical school, He was still searching for answers to the question "what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay"

When he was in his fourth year medical school, he watched many classmates choose to specialize in less demanding areas, radiology or dermatology for example.
It puzzled him that many students focused on lifestyle specialitiesthose with more humane hours, higher salaries, and lower pressures, For himself, he chose neurosurgery as a specialty,

Kalanithi was diagnosed with Cancer, he actually was almost certain he had cancer many months before getting an XRay or MRI, Once it was clear that the cancer had invaded multiple organ systems "severe illness wasn' life alteringit was life shattering", decisions needed to be made, His wife Lucy, father, siblings, doctors were all involved and chemo would start soon,
Clarifying the rest of his life only ageat the time, was going to be a process,
He and Lucy went to visit a sperm bank to preserve gametes and options, They had planned on having kids at the end of his residency,
To think. Paul Kalanithi wrote this book relentlessly fueled with purpose during the last year of his life never got to finish his life's plan, . yet he still worked that last year, But he was racing against time, With this book he was hoping to confront death examine it accept it as a physician and a patient, He wanted to help other people understand death and face their mortality, "It's not exotic. . but tragic enough and imaginable enough he says",

There is a beautiful but so sad Epilogue by Lucy from Paul's wife at the end of the book, Their baby had been born eight months before Paul died Marchth,,

Lucy reports that Paul let himself be vulnerable and comforted by family and friends, . and even when terminally ill, he remained fully alive!

Thank You Random House, Netgalley, and Paul and Lucy, Kalanithi Oh dear, I was always told not to speak ill of the dead, It feels awful to give a three star rating to a nice guy by all accounts who is now dead, But I simply did not find this book compelling or insightful enough, It is mildly interesting to learn about neurosurgery as a specialty and to read the author's thoughts as he faced diagnosis, illness and then death, I always felt that the author was holding back that it was too clinical, too calm, just not passionate enough, The first time I felt that I was reading something worthwhile was in thepage epilogue by the author's wife, I guess the best way to say it is this this is a quick read, And of course it should not be, I enjoy memoirs, but this one didn't grip me as much as others have, which is a shame considering how beloved this book seems to be, I admire Paul's resilience and passion for the world and his relationships, and I felt most compelled by his wife's conclusion towards the end when he couldn't complete his book.
I think what kept me from being emotionally engrossed in this book was the writing, I would have appreciated more descriptions and storytelling about his experiences and relationships, rather than being told these things, There's lots of talk about finding the value in life, and I would have liked to read more scenes, examples, etc, to support those notions. Do yourself a favour and don't listened to the ending of this book while doing your makeup, . .

Theres no way to review a book where the author died too young from cancer leaving his wife andmonths old baby behind without feeling like an asshole for not giving itstars.


Thats why more often than not, I dont give a rating to the autobiographies I read, I just dont feel comfortable rating someones life,

Cancer and the death of a close one is something most of us unfortunately can relate to and I think its why this book got so popular.

Im glad the author was able to write this book since it was his dream but in my opinion the best part of it was the epilogue from his wife.
Im sure its where most of us ended up ugly crying, alternative title: "How the upper class dies"

Autobiographical book by a guy who's trained and studied all his life, nearly became a writer, then chose to become a doctor instead that's what happens when you come from a family of medical doctors, and is diagnosed with cancer at the end of his training.
Torschlusspaniksets in and he has to write that one book he always wanted to write, It's partially an autobiography of his training, a hymn to his wife, and a bit on patientdoctor relationship,

Sometimes it's way too pretentious for its own good, lots of classical lit, lots of poetry quotes, lots of namedropping who on earth reads Wittgenstein to a newborn and sometimes it's too sentimental and just straightup walks into sitelinkTuesdays with Morrie territory.
It is not an ugly death for that the family is too welltrained in medicine to "fight" ultimately senseless fights, too wellacquainted with death to cause a fuss, too rich to die in a dump, too wellconnected to suffer bad doctors.


The last chapter written by the wife after his death is probably the best still, I wouldn't recommend it, not much new, not that interesting.
Would make a good book for Oprah's Book Club,

I can guarantee you that yours and my death will be much worse than what is described here, Here there is no constant vomiting, no blood, no mucus, no weeklong screaming from the pain, Death is too clean, like the book itself,

One of the best words we have in German literally "gate closing panic", it usually denotes a woman who starts to behave unusual once she realises that her childbearing age window is closing, but it can be used to describe everyone who starts to behave unusual once time starts to run out

It feels extremely mean to write that about a guy's work who has just died Unforgettable is what Verghese says in his foreword.
I agree and am fighting for my own breath to write my thoughts about this stunning memoir that has left me gasping for air, The writing. The emotion. The beauty in the darkness of dying,
I mourn the death of this writer, a surgeon of great potential, A doctor of great compassion, But the message he has left us is quite eloquently simple: make life as meaningful as you can in the time you have, Be grateful.
The touching epilogue his wife Lucy wrote,
My tears runneth over,have upped this. This one will stay with me for a long while, I don't think you should read this book because the story of an incredibly gifted man who had his life taken away at such a young age might give you the motivation to live life more fully.
I think you should read this book because that talented, inspiring man has incredibly important things to say derived from his own experiences, and it's important to listen and learn from them.


Read this book with the knowledge that you might not always be able to understand everything someone goes through, but you can set aside the time to listen to their story and hopefully give them the dignity and respect they deserve as a human being, in life or death.


“Human knowledge is never contained in one person, It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete, ” Paul Kalanithi I read this almost two months ago and realized I never reviewed it, When I finished the book, I just couldn't review it, It's a small book, but it's powerful, I didn't shed any tears at the end of it, but I remember sitting there physically shaking and feeling really numb and tingly, A book has never impacted me that way before, and I'm not even sure why I read the book in the first place since I knew what I was getting myself into.


Wait, I know why I wanted to read it, It was very therapeutic for me, I don't want to pull back the curtain too far on my life, but I've seen the havoc cancer causes out of nowhere in people's lives, People very close to me, I've held my grandmother's hand as she took her last breath after battling pancreatic cancer, My grandfather wasn't far behind her thanks to cancer in his lungs and throat, My dad has been battling colon cancer for the last two years, He's up and down. I think chemo does more bad than good, It's definitely taken its toll on him, but he's fighting,

All this cancer and death hitting so close to home left me in this weird phase two years ago where I got to learn what a panic attack feels like.
It's like having a heart attack, but not really, but close, It's scary. I think cancer blasting through my family while I was in the process of trying to move across the country just really shook me up, I still deal with the effects of it sometimes,

I think God was just trying to show me there are some things in life I can't control, I can pick my job, my house, what to watch on Netflix, but I have no power over death or cancer or a heart attack or a car crash or any of it.


Yeah

So this book was helpful, I felt like I really connected with it and it was something I needed to read, You might not have quite the same reaction, but I still highly recommend reading it, Fiction is always great to escape the dark realities of the world we live in, but sometimes confronting those realities head on is extremely beneficial, .