When Breath Becomes Air - May 2017

[Kristie, Moderator]

Winner of the Memoir & Autobiography award

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi



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 making a living treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. Just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air, which features a Foreword by Dr. Abraham Verghese and an Epilogue by Kalanithi’s wife, Lucy, 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 young neurosurgeon at Stanford, guiding patients toward a deeper understanding of death and illness, and finally into a patient and a new father to a baby girl, 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 mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

[Katy]

I found this book to be a moving tribute to a sensitive man who died so very young. The line "I can't go on. I'll go on" took on new meaning with him.

[Canadian Jen]

This was an awesome read.

[Kate]

This is a very thought provoking book and I feel is an important read as we are all marching toward death each day...most people never want to think about it and always imagine it waiting in some far off future. I grew up still in a time when people died at home with their families around them.
My father was pragmatic and a believer in being prepared, he had survived being a bomber in the Pacific and he was a fatalist with an optimistic twist...and felt that if you thought about the process of dying and actually became familiar with the concept you would be better prepared to face death and do it with less fear and a modicum of grace. I am currently reading "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Atule Gwande, also an excellent read. that is sure to help people help those they love face their mortality with honest expectations.

[Janina]

Again, I'm the odd one out. To me, the author appeared shallow and self-centered .. which is awful to say about someone I don't know and who died far too young. Yet, he constantly focused on his achievements and his superiority over normal people. The biggest tragedy that I found in his words was not him leaving his family or the world, but rather him having to say good-bye to his career and his potential ... only to turn to writing his memoirs and leaving the world with the only wish to have those published. Honestly? He came across lacking any understanding of what life is about to me.

I think cancer is horrible. It kills far too many people .. most of whom are never in any position to have any meaningful impact in the eyes of the author. But that makes them no less important or meaningful or relevant.

I found the first part of the book interesting .. I've always been intrigued by pathology and surgery of the live brain is certainly even more fascinating .. but I didn't get anything beyond that out of the book.

[Ying Ying]

The meaning of Paul's life was very dependent on how long he had to live: surgery, if he had 20 years; writing, if he had 2 years; and family, if he had less.

He was an ambitious person, and hence attained so many achievements at a young age. The mere quote of "I can't go on. I'll go on" is a reflection of a strong will. How many would have continued when facing an obstacle?