When Breath Becomes Air

By Paul Kalanithi

When Breath Becomes Air

Paul Kalanithi, a young and intelligent neurosurgeon, is faced with terminal cancer and is left to ask himself “What makes life worth living?” In this heartbreaking memoir thirty-six year old Paul brings us through his hardworking rise into the medical field as he helps dying patients and their families come to terms with their reality. What he never thought would happen was that he would have to come to terms with his own mortality as stage IV lung cancer impacts him and his family. In this beautifully heartbreaking account Paul asks himself “What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present?”

228 January 12, 2016

4.36

4.7

“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”

Thoughts

I don’t cry from reading most books. Yes some move me in ways I never thought, and others bring up emotions, but to move me to tears? Very unlikely. Because I’m a man, right? Well, this one ruined me. I was balling like a child from pure emotional movement. To be fair I held it together for most of the book. What really got me was the last chapter in When Breath Becomes Air when Paul’s wife chimes in with how she hopes to remember, but also go on after Paul passes away in March 2015. I mean come on. Paul is a very eloquent writer and at multiple points in this story you have to stop and stare off into the distance to assess your own life based on how Paul recounts his which makes this absolutely worth the read in its own right. But the ending will rip your goddamn heart out and force you to face your own existence and impact on others. It is both cathartic to know Paul’s great life had such an impact on others, but it also forces you to be a better person so one day when you’re not around you can leave a similar mark on your loved ones. I am about to start crying again, so please go check this quick 200 page read out if you want to be moved, and learn more about your own impact on this world.