I continue to think memoir is an exceptionally powerful form of writing, and When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi, was no exception.
By all conventional metrics, Kalanithi was an accomplished and extraordinary person. He got a BA and MA in English literature at Stanford University, a MPhil in history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University, went to Yale to become a doctor, and then back to Stanford to become a neurosurgeon and nationally awarded neuroscientist. Not a pace for the faint of heart. Very early in the memoir Kalanithi tells us that he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in his mid-30s, very close to the end of his surgery residency. The memoir then moves back to his growing up in Arizona, the learning journey that took him to medicine, the up and down struggle with cancer. What makes this a memoir rather than an autobiography is Kalanithi’s deep reflections on life’s meaning and its purpose, both through the lens of the medicine he practiced, his experience as a patient, his changing identity as a surgeon (or non-surgeon) and constant awareness of death in his last years. Very sadly, Kalanithi died before the book could be finished, and so the last chapter was written touchingly by his wife, who gives us a new lens with which to see him.
Kalanithi transfers his love of literature to his own writing, which is engaging, erudite, and deeply honest without being trite or inviting pity. It is a series of reflections on what is most important, and how to live full of presence, love and learning.
Just Because I Liked It: