Bismillah.
The first time I've heard about this book was from an interview video of Lee Nadine, a gorgeous Harvard-student-alias-influencer who starred in the infamous Korean dating variety show for single people; Single's Inferno. She captured the viewers' hearts with her graceful and classy attitude, a demeanor befitting her brilliant mind. When asked about her favourite book, she answered it enthusiastically, even saying she had read it four times.
As she was my idol during that particular time, and also certainly my favourite participant in the show, it was no wonder that I searched the book up on the internet, and quickly added it to my TBR-list.
I meant to read it sooner. However, there were too much of adulting stuffs going on for me at that moment, thus the priority hereby went to the soon-to-be-due-assignments, group projects and meetings. It was hard for me to actually sit down and have my own 'me time'. I finally had the time to read the book after literally wrestled myself to it.
Title: When Breath Becomes Air
Author: Paul Kalanithi
Genre: Autobiography, Memoir
Date of Published: 12th January 2016
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
The book started with a prologue; a 30-year-old-something Paul was flipping through his CT scan images, dressed in not his usual white coat, but a patient's gown. As an accomplished final year neurological resident at Stanford, he knew at the first glance of what it was. Six months before, he started experiencing the symptoms: losing weight and ferocious back pain.
He continued to tell the story in his point of view. The first part of the story recounts on his glorious days before he discovered he had stage four lung cancer. In the second part, Paul narrates his story and his views on life, as both a doctor and patient. The book ended with an epilogue, written by his beloved wife, Lucy.
No words could describe how reading this book was literally a life-changing experience. It got me sobbing on my knees, screaming my heart out and undoubtedly left me questioning my life decisions.
Seriously though, how could a book make you cry THIS MUCH? The only time you would find me not crying would be from that one scene when Paul became a spider man-which was not in this universe-so nope, no no-crying happened. (ugh do u get it?)
To read this book is to read about a great man who achieved everything in his life, dying with his family by his side, on his journey to face death. It is also equally important to read in this beautifully-written memoir about the resilience and what makes life meaningful enough to go on living. Paul, in writing his story not just as a cancer patient but also how he saw life as before and after the devastating news. Before the news he was always a strong man, doing surgeries for tens of hours and dedicating life to medicine. But what happens after he started to feel those pain? The kind of pain he really knew about (after all, his patients used different words to describe it) but he never actually knew what it felt like. What happens to life after cancer changed his world. It was a long haul, long struggle full of tears and pain and therapy. His story reminds us that in chasing for our dreams, don't forget to look back and walk shoulder-to-shoulder, fingers interlocked with your loved ones, for no one can tell the future.
Some of the excerpts/quotes I figured would you even more intrigued about the book:
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