Scan barcode
lifelearner's review against another edition
3.0
Inspiring and realistic view of a doctor's life battling terminal cancer, from physician to patient.
stacylynnf's review against another edition
5.0
This was poetic, philosophical, scientific, personal, hauntingly beautiful, powerful, and unforgettable. Even if you set aside the immensity of the tragedy of the actual story behind the book, the prose alone was simply amazing. The book was inspiring and simply unforgettable.
Some notable and memorable quotes:
On human nature:
“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”
On life, mortality, and love (and their decision to have a child while he is terminally ill):
“Will having a newborn distract from the time we have together?" she asked. "Don't you think saying goodbye to your child will make your death more painful?"
"Wouldn't it be great if it did?" I said..."
On religion:
“Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.”
On the responsibility of being a health care provider:
“Those burdens are what make medicine holy and wholly impossible: in taking up another’s cross, one must sometimes get crushed by the weight.”
On his specialty, neurosurgery, and its connection to emotions/life meaning:
“(B)rains give rise to our ability to form relationships and make life meaningful. Sometimes, they break.”
On the doctor-patient relationship (surgical specialty):
“When there is no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon’s only tool.”
Departing words to his daughter:
“When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.”
Some notable and memorable quotes:
On human nature:
“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”
On life, mortality, and love (and their decision to have a child while he is terminally ill):
“Will having a newborn distract from the time we have together?" she asked. "Don't you think saying goodbye to your child will make your death more painful?"
"Wouldn't it be great if it did?" I said..."
On religion:
“Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.”
On the responsibility of being a health care provider:
“Those burdens are what make medicine holy and wholly impossible: in taking up another’s cross, one must sometimes get crushed by the weight.”
On his specialty, neurosurgery, and its connection to emotions/life meaning:
“(B)rains give rise to our ability to form relationships and make life meaningful. Sometimes, they break.”
On the doctor-patient relationship (surgical specialty):
“When there is no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon’s only tool.”
Departing words to his daughter:
“When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.”
meganremschel's review against another edition
4.0
Well written and reminded me a lot of the last lecture book. Easy read and very touching.
rae607's review against another edition
5.0
This memoir, written by a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in his early 40s, will challenge you to rethink what you believe about death and about how to find meaning in your life. It's a beautiful, important book. Paul Kalanithi was uniquely qualified to write it, having dedicated much of his academic life before medical school to studying literature. Highly recommended.
telsberry's review against another edition
4.0
Real, thought provoking, heartbreaking sweetness of a mans journey through a terrible disease.