This is the first book that made
me tear up as I was reading through in multiple instances. I could be easily
moved emotionally using some visual media but for the first time I felt I was
emotionally moved as I read through the printed passages. This reflects how
eloquent Paul Kalanithi is and perhaps being a quadragenerian father I could
relate easily and realistically to some of the real moments Paul has gone through
that he has wrote about in this book. He gives no room for you to wonder, how
come a Neurosurgeon can be so eloquent in his writing style, choice of words,
rich anecdotes from some of the best known literary works, as he gives you a
clear view of his childhood, adolescence and his college/university days where he
learnt literature. Aside from all the medical jargon, I kept looking at the
dictionary for so many words and the list was long : Compendium, Apostasy,
Lowbrow, Macaques , Idylls ,Speck like,Talus,Cusp,Wailing ,Coiffed,Sinew,Formaldehyde ,Farcical,
Mannequins, Unconscionable, Grotesque , Macabre, Livid, Spectre, Fidgeted,
Cautery, Asunder, Subcutaneous, Concomitant, Ebullient, Arete, Ambidextrous, Aortic ,
Aneurism, Inured, Labile, Covenant, Esoteric, Volition, Ineluctable , Effacing,
Connive, Hare, Prosody, Scowl, Asymptote, Quandaries , Prognostications, Pockmarked ,
Cop-out, Antiphon, Pluperfect, Hospice, Ameliorate, Askew
Aside the journey of an terminally ill Surgeon, who battles time in the
quest of his purpose, the most incredible aspect that made me admire about Paul
was his integrity or being true to himself all along his life and he gives a honest
picture of that. It makes me sit up and think how one can be so honest and courageous
in the face of death. The following immortal lines of Thiruvalluvar kept
resonating in my mind at every moving moment, my interpretation of which is “if
your death brings tears to your patrons and kith and kin, you could long and
beg for that death”.
புரந்தார்கண்
நீர்மல்கச் சாகிற்பின் சாக்காடு
இரந்துகோள் தக்கது
உடைத்து
This book gives a clear account what a surgeon’s life is like and makes
you wonder how soon after an intern becomes a resident surgent his income grows
6-fold. At the same time as we learn that when you operate with the human brain,
if you cut 2mm more into certain parts it could leave the patient paralyzed for
the remainder of their lives, we could appreciate the complex intricacies of a
surgeons’ tasks and also makes you wonder how errors in such minute and
most-delicate procedures are managed !!! As I did, if you wondered what a
Kaplan Meier Method is that you could look up : https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/kaplan-meier-method
Also I admire Mrs. Lucy Kalanithi who stood like rock beside Paul and was
also teared up when she was apprehensive about if her head on his Paul’s chest
was making his breathing difficult and Paul responds as “that’s the only way he
knows to breathe” – what an intimately romantic couple they were that time had enviously
separated ?
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