For my book report, I have chosen the book “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi. This nonfiction book is an autobiography written by the author as a memoir about his life and his struggles in battling his illness, stage IV metastatic lung cancer. After doing some research on all the books that were suggested for our report, I was truly captivated by the synopsis of the book and though they always say “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, I did. The cover is really simple; just the title with a beige background. However, for some reason, a lot of my favorite books all have a simple background and I just automatically made the assumption that I would fall in love with this book. Other than the visuals and the synopsis of this book, I also chose this book because the author’s illness, lung cancer, reminds me of my great grandpa who lost his battle to lung cancer. Cancer has taken away many of my loved ones. Although the topic of cancer brings up painful memories, I think that this book has also help me feel relieved in some way.
As a resident in neurosurgery, Paul Kanithi had suspected he had cancer considering the sudden changes in his body. His back would often spaz and he had lost a significant amount of weight. As a medical student, he was often stressed and tired which allowed him to disregard these symptoms, until he started having chest pains. Kalanithi had to ditch the vacation plans to New York with his wife Lucy when his doctor called and told him his chest x-rays were blurry. At this point in the book, Kanithi takes us back to his childhood. He recalls when he was just ten when he and his family moves to Arizona, where Kanithi fell in love with literature.
However, he began to question about the meaning of life and wondered if literature had all the answers to his questions. As a result, Kanithi became interested in psychology and neuroscience thus going to med-school. During his study a Yale, he came across his first real experience of death. As an intern, Paul Kanithi was placed in ob-gyn where one of the patients started having contractions at twenty three weeks along. The twin babies who were delivered by c-section unfortunately died within the first twenty four hours. Advancing into his residency, Kanithi faced grueling but rewarding work hours. Working at one hundred hours per week, he was determined in becoming a neurosurgeon and was one of the most dedicated residents in the hospital. As a result, he was promoted into becoming the chief resident.
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Although this was rewarding, his work threaten his marriage and left him exhausted. Now flashing back to the present, Paul Kanithi was disganosed with stage IV lung cancer. When he saw CT scan, he knew that he was dying. For a period of time, Kanithi was on medication which successfully stopped his aggressive cancer. He was allowed back to work and was cutting close to graduation. With his life in control, Kanithi and his wife, Lucy, decided to have a child together. However, during his wife’s pregnancy, Kanithi had a follow up appointment where he was told the devastating news that he only had five more years to live. Soon after Lucy gave birth to their daughter, Kanithi begins writing this book. However, this book remains unfinished at the time of his death. The book finishes with Lucy’s epilogue explaining her husband’s deteriorated health in his last year of living.
Allow me to take you back to the beginning of this book where Paul Kanithi questioned if literature would define the meaning of life. During his last years, this question soon turned into “Is it surgery, literature or simple time with family that will provide me what most lasting happiness and the deepest meaning?” For Paul Kanithi who was dying, the answer to this question was very obvious. This conversion reminds me of the movie “Wit”. Vivian was also diagnosed with stage IV cancer but before her diagnosis, Vivian believed that living her life to the fullest meant being book smart and becoming successful in her academics and career. However, her coming to death allowed her to realize that she failed to define her life. She failed to live her life to the fullest. Only when she was dying did she realize that she was too busy becoming “successful” that she failed to build relationships and experience love of family and friends.
The relation of this book to our class is very obvious as the plot of this story goes. Paul Kanithi is a surgeon who treats patients. However, he ends up being another doctor’s patient. In battling this illness, he realized that in order to truly understand the meaning of life, he would have to face and accept the ultimate ending of life, which is death. In the book he says, “ Rushing a patient to the OR to save only enough brain that his heart beats but he can never speak, he eats through a tube, and he is condemned to an existence he would never want… I came to see this as a more egregious failure than the patient dying.” This quote shows that he understands that death is the ultimate ending of all human beings. Although he “saved” the patient, he sees this save as a failure. He believes that the patient’s life is now meaningless; he now has to eat through a tube and can not speak. In other words, he would rather die than suffer from not being able to speak and eat (the joys of life).
I think that the main theme of this book is “What is the true meaning of life?” The first line of this book quotes “There is a moment, a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living. We are never so wise as when we live in this moment.” Paul Kalanithi tells us that you can only live your life to the fullest if you live in the present. Do not worry about the future and regret the past. Do not take for granted your loved ones around you now as the future haunts us. You will never know what will happen tomorrow. Other themes in this book may include education, family, and life and death. Education plays a main role in “When Breath Becomes Air” as it was a huge part of Kalanithi’s life. He works his way through high school and finally medical school allowing him to complete his residency in neurosurgery. Near his death, Kalanithi finally receives the medical degree that he has been studying so many years for. Family also played a major role in his family as he depended on his family for support during his battle against his disease.
If I were to critique the book, there wouldn’t be much I would change about it. The only thing I would hope to change is the fact that the book if unfinished but obviously, death is superior. The book was not hard for me to read at all. It was very straightforward and though there were a few quotes that I liked, they weren’t hard to interpret. I would recommend anyone to read this book without a doubt. This book has allowed me to dive into the mind of someone else. As mentioned before, I have lost my loves ones to cancer. Till this day, I do not understand why they gave up on their lives when they had the choice to fight against their illness and live. After reading this book, I do not ask that question anymore. I realize that they have truly lived their life to the fullest. Spending time with family through laughs and tears and experiencing love. This book has also allowed me to realize that life is really simple. It is not the end of the world if you do not get that A on your psychology test.
There is a lot more to life than just that. I also wake up from the past. I tend to think and question “What if, could’ve, should’ve”. As Paul Kanithi says, one should live in the present and stop worrying about the future and regretting the past. The past is the past. What happened has already happened so I think that we could really do ourselves a favor and stress about one thing less. As for the future, today, you will never know what will happen tomorrow. You have no control over what will happen. I think that we should leave it into God’s hands and live for what is in front of you now. Other than life and death, the idea of living in the present allows me to try and be more open. Whether it be seeking job opportunities or simple decisions such as trying out a dance class. Since we don’t know what life has in store for us, I think that trying out new things does no harm to us.
References
- Amazon Page for “When Breath Becomes Air”
- Goodreads Page for “When Breath Becomes Air”
- NPR Interview with Paul Kalanithi about “When Breath Becomes Air”
- Wikipedia Page on Paul Kalanithi
- Research Article on Metastatic Lung Cancer
- WebMD’s Lung Cancer Overview
- Research Article on the Role of Literature in Medicine
