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mukunamatata's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I think this is a must read for anyone. I have never been remotely interested in the medical field, and I feel as if the book educated me in unfathomable ways about what I want to make of my life and death. What beautiful writing, and an ending (and epilogue) that I cried when reading. The line about promising one life and giving another, or about Why me vs Why not me….. there is just so much here that allows a reader to go back and reread key lines and mull over all Kalanithi wants you to understand. And to boot, it cuts off sharply and feels unfinished almost: just like his life. There’s a deep tragedy in this that just wraps around a reader and touches every part of them. I started reading it from around 40% through one night and had to just power to the end because of how enthralled the writing had me.
radh's review
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
This one had been on my TBR for ages and has been recommended to me by so many people and it does live up to the hype. I loved reading about Paul finding his passions in life as it truly is so rare to find someone who cares so deeply about anything they do. His writing holds a beautiful balance of matter-of-fact directness and emotion that I greatly appreciated as well. The book also reminds me of my favorite book, The Bright Hour, which is a memoir of similar topics. A beautiful read and insights even if sad
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Cancer
indiarose8's review
fast-paced
4.0
Very beautifully written and heartfelt. A little too wordy at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Medical content
inkandinsights's review against another edition
5.0
There are two ways of understanding death.
1. One through literature. Pore over the sea of works that great minds have crafted over the millennia.
2. Be where death is. Become a doctor where death is lurking around you taking the lives of patients whom you are trying hard to save.
Paul Kalanithi has walked through both the paths. Do I call him lucky or unlucky?
How can a person have such mental clarity when confronted with a terminal disease?!
The book's title itself is poetic in nature. And it is just a prelude to the flourishing writing style that Paul weaves within those pages.
This is not a book. This is a testament to human strength.
Don't look for takeaways in this book. Don't expect the highs and lows of a fictional book.
This book, like life, flows smoothly at a pace of its own. At times it is peaceful like a lazy river, then there are rapids, unexpected waterfalls; but in the end, it all ends in the many seas that reach the many oceans.
This is a book to cherish. One to own for a lifetime. One to take a look at when life seems dull and not within one's grasp. One that reminds us lucky ones what blessing it is to be alive and to enjoy all the goodness in it.
1. One through literature. Pore over the sea of works that great minds have crafted over the millennia.
2. Be where death is. Become a doctor where death is lurking around you taking the lives of patients whom you are trying hard to save.
Paul Kalanithi has walked through both the paths. Do I call him lucky or unlucky?
How can a person have such mental clarity when confronted with a terminal disease?!
The book's title itself is poetic in nature. And it is just a prelude to the flourishing writing style that Paul weaves within those pages.
This is not a book. This is a testament to human strength.
Don't look for takeaways in this book. Don't expect the highs and lows of a fictional book.
This book, like life, flows smoothly at a pace of its own. At times it is peaceful like a lazy river, then there are rapids, unexpected waterfalls; but in the end, it all ends in the many seas that reach the many oceans.
This is a book to cherish. One to own for a lifetime. One to take a look at when life seems dull and not within one's grasp. One that reminds us lucky ones what blessing it is to be alive and to enjoy all the goodness in it.
kaulhilo's review against another edition
4.0
“the word hope first appeared in english about a thousand years ago, denoting some combination of confidence and desire. but what i desired—life—was not what i was confident about—death. when i talked about hope, then, did i really mean “leave some room for unfounded desire?” no. medical statistics not only describe numbers such as mean survival, they measure our confidence in our numbers, with tools like confidence levels, confidence intervals, and confidence bounds. so did i mean “leave some room for a statistically improbable but still plausible outcome—a survival just above the measured 95 percent confidence interval?” is that what hope was? could we divide the curve into existential sections, from “defeated” to “pessimistic” to “realistic” to “hopeful” to “delusional”? weren’t the numbers just the numbers? had we all just given in to the “hope” that every patient was above average? it occurred to me that my relationship with statistics changed as soon as i became one.”
two days, and this book has been an eye-opener but also a silencer; what do you say in the face of this, in the face of life transitioning to death? what do you say before? i had an entire review planned while i was somewhere around 40% in the book, things i needed to say, but they all feel incredibly insubstantial now. i’d say i wish i had read this sooner, but i feel like that would be an antithesis to the book- so i’ll admit i’m glad i read it now.
two days, and this book has been an eye-opener but also a silencer; what do you say in the face of this, in the face of life transitioning to death? what do you say before? i had an entire review planned while i was somewhere around 40% in the book, things i needed to say, but they all feel incredibly insubstantial now. i’d say i wish i had read this sooner, but i feel like that would be an antithesis to the book- so i’ll admit i’m glad i read it now.