Book Review: “When Breathe Becomes Air” by Dr Paul Kalanithi
When breath becomes air is a beautiful book written by Dr Paul Kalanithi. A neurosurgeon himself, this book is his own account of dealing with his own fleeting life after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer at the age of 35.
When he was young, Dr Paul often pondered “where biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersected”. His love for poetry and philosophy made him reflect on the questions of life and death. Paul was very well-read, and due to this reason, his words touch the readers in many different ways.
In this book, Paul relates his experience of what doctors go through while handling patients and their families. He says, “The question is not simply whether to live or die but what kind of life is worth living.” “What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?”
As a doctor, he learned while talking to the patient’s family, “It’s important to be accurate, but you must always leave some room for hope”.
Paul shares how he makes peace with the knowledge of his death, his last day at work, and the last paperwork he would handle.
“While seeing death as an imposing visitor but knowing that even if I’m dying until I actually die, I am still living.” – Gives us a peek into his spirit to bravely accept his fate and to go on living.
He started to write this book when he started his cancer treatment.
“Maybe, in the absence of any uncertainty, we should just assume that we’re going to live a long time. Maybe that’s the only way forward”.
This book was published posthumously in 2016.
I will end by quoting from the Epilogue written by his wife: “This book carries the urgency of racing against the time of having important things to say, Paul confronted death – examined it, wrestled with it, accepted it- as a physician and a patient. He wanted to help people understand death and face their mortality…. What happened to Paul was tragic, but he was not a tragedy”.
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Book#:224
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