Book Review: When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi

“I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”

“even if I’m dying, until I actually die, I am still living.”

“life wasn’t about avoiding suffering.”

When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi is a profoundly moving and thought-provoking memoir that offers a glimpse into the world of medicine, mortality, and the search for meaning in the face of a terminal illness.

The book begins with Dr. Kalanithi’s early years and his deep-seated fascination with literature and medicine. His exploration of literature as a student at Stanford and later his decision to pursue a career in neurosurgery provide the backdrop for his reflections on the intersection of science and the human experience. The last time I felt this intersection was while reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

With moving prose and deep introspection, Dr. Kalanithi shares his experiences, dreams, and aspirations. He digs into the challenges and dilemmas faced by medical professionals as they navigate the fine line between life and death, while also confronting their own mortality.

The book revolves around the life of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon, and his journey from a promising medical career to a battle with stage IV lung cancer. It’s astonishing how Dr. Kalanithi’s narrative shifts from the perspective of a promising young neurosurgeon with his entire life ahead of him to that of a patient confronting his own mortality.

His descriptions of the diagnosis, treatment, and deterioration of his health are raw and unsettling. However, the book helps readers witness his courage, vulnerability, and the strength he draws from his spouse, and immediate family. Dr. Kalanithi delves deep into the philosophical questions surrounding life and death. He examines the tension between his role as a doctor and his newfound identity as a patient.

Throughout the book, he contemplates the question of what makes life worth living, especially in the face of a limited time frame. Personally, for me, these reflections helped with profound insights into the human condition, prompting me to ponder my own life and priorities.

Interwoven with Dr. Kalanithi’s personal narrative are his observations on the healthcare system. Inspired by Atul Gawande, his experiences shed light on the need for more compassionate and patient-centered care. His dual perspective, as both a doctor and a patient, sheds light on the vulnerabilities and fears that patients face, and it highlights the importance of empathy and understanding in the medical field. Dr. Kalanithi’s experiences as a patient reveal the limitations of medicine and the importance of communication, compassion, limitations, and shared decision-making in healthcare.

His narrative is not only a personal account but also an exploration of the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Kalanithi discusses the challenges of providing compassionate care while maintaining professionalism.

For me, the highlight of the book is Dr. Kalanithi’s transition from a literature major to a neurosurgeon reflecting his dedication to exploring the complexities of human existence. Throughout the book, he ponders upon existential questions, trying to make sense of life’s purpose during illness and uncertainty.

This book is a celebration of human life and its mortality. Death can come to anyone at any moment and at any age. While Medicine has its limitations, there is no limit to human empathy, compassion, care, and love. My intent in writing this review is to talk about this big elephant in the room “death”. It's still a taboo in many societies and homes. However, death is the ultimate truth of any living organism on earth. During the process of evolution, we, humans, forgot that we are living organisms and are a part of the animal kingdom. All living organisms die.

The more we talk about death and our personal losses, the better we get equipped to accept the inevitable and grieve better. We are mortals and we can’t skip losing our loved ones or dying ourselves one day.

It’s a book that inspires self-reflection, compassion, and a deeper understanding of what it means to truly live. Dr.Kalanithi’s legacy lives on through his words, reminding us all to embrace life with gratitude.

My Favourite Quotes from the book:

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

“Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still, it is never complete.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If the unexamined life was not worth living, was the unlived life worth examining?”

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X