When Breath Becomes Air
By Paul Kalanithi
256 pages;
Random House
Thirty-six-year-old medical student Paul
Kalanithi is about to become a practicing neurosurgeon, when he's diagnosed
with stage IV lung cancer—on X-rays he can read himself. For most of
us, such news might produce paralyzing fear or rage. But Kalanithi not only
continues to work as a surgeon, he also begins to write about the experience of
illness and to reflect on the choices that define him. The result? An elegiac
but never despairing chronicle of the short period between finding out about
his terminal illness and his passing two years later. What elevates this memoir
to greatness—and perhaps accounts for why it's rocketed to the top of
best-seller lists—is not just how it confronts life's most difficult
questions with the humanity of a philosopher, the expertise of a medical professional
and the language of a poet, but also its generosity. Kalanithi invites us to
accompany him on the toughest of our journeys, to look into the abyss and
wonder with him, "If the weight of mortality does not grow lighter, does
it at least get more familiar?".
— Leigh Haber
