It was Paul Kalanithi’s keen interest in the philosophy of life and death that made him pursue a career.....
Literary and poignant
When Breath Becomes Air (A Memior)
Author: Paul Kalanithi
Reviewed by Bushra Majid
It was Paul Kalanithi’s keen interest in the philosophy of life and death that made him pursue a career in medicine and become a neurosurgeon after studying arts, literature and philosophy.
When Breath Becomes Air begins with Paul’s journey as a medical student where he talks about his daily routine. He has to deal with critical surgeries that involve removing brain tumour, degenerated disc from the spine of an old age patient, etc. Paul says that at times it was difficult to look into the eyes of his patients and reveal to them that they have an incurable disease or the possibility of developing complications after surgery rendering the patient to come out with debilities. However, he respected their hopes and dreams and was never in the favour of revealing the time left; even though the statistics were there, there is no surety of how and when a person dies.
He was in full swing, almost towards the end of completing his specialization as a neurosurgeon, when a hard blow brought him closer to the experience that he had always questioned himself. Paul was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and it felt very heavy on him and the entire family.
The second part of the book begins from where Paul describes how with his disease, he was transformed from a doctor to a patient. Amidst all the hassle of appointments, chemo and much more, Paul and his wife Lucy decided to have a baby. A young, healthy 36-year-old man who was just beginning to start his life became a lethargic, deteriorating individual who eventually has to give up the passion for which he has tirelessly worked for so many years.
When he has finally accepted the reality, he decides to write down his whole experience. As the disease progresses, every task becomes very difficult but the joy of holding his daughter and just seeing her lighten up his days and nights.
How Paul Kalanithi’s memoir ends is exceptionally beautiful, although he was unable to finish the memoir.
Death was not easy for him. It is described towards the end in the epilogue by Lucy Kalanithi that would grip the readers in awe for a long time. I connected to the book as my family and I have been dealing with my grandfather’s malignancy for the past six months now and I felt that my experience and emotions were put into words exactly the same way that I have felt them.
Never before a story of success, despair, courage and death have been described so honestly and purely. Believe me, it’s enough to touch your heart and leave you mesmerized for a long, long time.
There it was. A new tumor, large, filling my right middle lobe. It looked, oddly, like a full moon having almost cleared the horizon. Going back to the old images, I could make out the faintest trace of it, a ghostly harbinger now brought fully into the world.
I was neither angry nor scared. It simply was.
- Excerpt from When Breath Becomes Air
