For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
Paul Kalanithi, M.D., was a neurosurgeon and writer. Paul grew up in Kingman, Arizona, before attending Stanford University, from which he graduated in 2000 with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature and a B.A. in Human Biology. He earned an M.Phil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from the University of Cambridge before attending medical school. In 2007, Paul graduated cum-laude from the Yale School of Medicine, winning the Lewis H. Nahum Prize for outstanding research and membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He returned to Stanford for residency training in Neurological Surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience, during which he authored over twenty scientific publications and received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest award for research.
Paul’s reflections on doctoring and illness – he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2013, though he never smoked – have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Paris Review Daily, in addition to interviews in academic settings and media outlets such as MSNBC. Paul completed neurosurgery residency in 2014. Paul died in March, 2015, while working on When Breath Becomes Air, an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.. He is survived by his wife Lucy and their daughter Cady.
毛姆讲过一个叫“萨马拉之约”的寓言,说的萨马拉城里一个商人的仆人出门买菜,在市场遇到了死神,看到了死神威胁的手势,惊吓之后决定借了商人的马,逃往巴格达。商人出门也碰到了死神,便问他为何要吓唬自己的仆人。死神答道,那不是威胁,是我在萨马拉碰到他吓了一跳,我本...
评分毛姆讲过一个叫“萨马拉之约”的寓言,说的萨马拉城里一个商人的仆人出门买菜,在市场遇到了死神,看到了死神威胁的手势,惊吓之后决定借了商人的马,逃往巴格达。商人出门也碰到了死神,便问他为何要吓唬自己的仆人。死神答道,那不是威胁,是我在萨马拉碰到他吓了一跳,我本...
评分每个人都曾思考过生存的意义,或多或少,角度也不尽相同。可我们都时常感到人生苦短无常,同时又感到过程沉闷苦痛,好像是奈保尔说过的吧:人们更害怕无聊。 本书的作者保罗•卡拉尼什是个比寻常人更惧怕“无聊”的人,他从小便善于思考又深具才华,生在中产阶级家庭,有一位...
评分 评分今年看了两本类似的书。《此生未完成》和《当呼吸化为空气》。 从两位作者的履历来看,上交+复旦+奥斯陆,斯坦福+剑桥+耶鲁;从人生上看,他们培养了那么多年自己,还没有伸出手去完成期待的,就走到了生命的尽头。 读《此生未完成》,曾对一个段落印象极深—— “我三年半同时...
从文学史的角度来看,这本书的价值不言而喻,它提供了一个现代人面对不可抗力时的绝佳样本。它的力量不在于提供了答案,而在于它完美地呈现了“提问”本身的过程——那个充满困惑、挣扎、妥协与和解的复杂心路历程。语言风格上,它呈现出一种极为成熟的“去煽情化”的倾向,但这绝不意味着情感的缺失,恰恰相反,最深沉的情感往往不需要夸张的辞藻来烘托。作者像是用一把锋利的手术刀,精准地切开了表层的情绪,直达核心的痛点和真诚。我发现自己不仅在为书中的人物而感动,更是在为一个普通人在面对巨大挑战时所展现出的那种坚韧的、充满探索欲的人性光辉而折服。这本书的结尾处理得非常高明,它没有落入俗套的圆满或彻底的绝望,而是留下了一种充满尊严的、向前看的姿态。
评分这本书给我最大的感受是它的“诚实度”。作者似乎完全卸下了所有社会期待的面具,以一种近乎近乎私密的日记形式,向世界坦露了他内心最深处的恐惧与希望。这种极度的坦诚,使得文字本身带有一种近乎神圣的重量感。阅读过程中,我时常需要停下来,不是因为情节复杂,而是因为那些字句太过于精准地命中了某些我一直试图回避的情绪。这本书像一面镜子,照见的不仅是作者的生命轨迹,也折射出每一个阅读者的内心世界。它探讨了爱与责任、专业精神与人性关怀之间的微妙界限,并将这些抽象概念,通过具体的家庭互动场景具体化。总而言之,这是一部需要用心去感受、去消化的作品,它带来的影响是持久的、潜移默化的,它让我在读完许久之后,依然能够感受到文字中蕴含的那种跨越生死的、对美好事物的不懈留恋与珍视。
评分这本书的文字功底真是令人惊叹。作者的叙事视角非常独特,能够将深刻的哲学思考融入到日常生活的细节描绘中,读起来一点也不觉得枯燥,反而有一种娓娓道来的力量。尤其是在描绘人物内心挣扎和情感转变的部分,笔触细腻入微,仿佛能让人真切地感受到角色呼吸之间的起伏。那种对生命意义的追问,不是空泛的说教,而是通过一系列真实、感人的事件自然而然地流淌出来。我特别欣赏作者对于语言的驾驭能力,那些精妙的比喻和恰到好处的留白,让读者有足够的空间去自行体会和解读,每一次重读都能发现新的感悟。整体来看,这不仅仅是一个故事,更像是一次对存在本质的深入探索,文字的力量在此刻得到了淋漓尽致的展现,让人读完后久久不能平静,心灵受到了极大的触动和洗礼。这本书的结构处理也非常巧妙,时而跳跃,时而回溯,但始终紧紧抓住了核心的情感主线,引人入胜。
评分阅读体验上,这本书的节奏把握得极佳,像一部精心剪辑的电影。它在叙事流畅性和思想深邃度之间找到了一个完美的平衡点。有时候,作者会用一段极其日常、近乎平铺直叙的文字,突然抛出一个足以让人停下来沉思半晌的观点,这种张弛有度的叙事技巧,极大地增强了文本的张力。我特别喜欢书中对职业与个人身份之间复杂关系的探讨。当一个人毕生所学、所追求的领域,与自身将要面对的终极命运产生正面冲突时,那种身份认同的危机感被刻画得入木三分。这让这本书的受众群体远远超出了特定人群,任何在生活中努力构建自我价值体系的人,都能从中找到强烈的共鸣点。它迫使你重新审视自己现有的轨道,并思考在你设定的“成功”或“完整”的定义之外,真正让你感到充实的是什么。
评分这本书带来的震撼是全方位的,它不仅仅是文学上的成功,更是一种对人生态度的强力冲击。我很少读到能够如此坦诚地剖析人类最脆弱、最本能恐惧的作品。作者毫不回避地将那些我们通常选择性遗忘的、关于终结的议题摆在了台面上,但处理方式却充满了智慧和克制。它没有过度渲染悲情,而是以一种近乎冷静的、科学家的精确度来审视死亡的降临,这种反差反而制造出更强大的情感张力。每一次翻页都像是一次深呼吸,既害怕接下来会读到什么,又忍不住想知道作者将如何继续这场与命运的对话。这本书成功地将“接受”这个宏大而虚无的概念,具象化为每一个具体的瞬间、每一次微小的决定。读完之后,我感觉自己对“珍惜当下”这句话有了全新的、更扎实的理解,不再是口号式的安慰,而是植根于对有限性的深刻认识。
评分2017年读完的最后一本,依旧是死亡的主题。心中五味杂陈,一则被其深沉的悲悯心(对病人和家属的体恤发自内心而非形式,也不因见证太多生离死别而变得麻木)和对生命的敬畏(对病人遗体的尊重贯穿始终)打动,二则是归根结底回到那个永恒的话题:如果死亡终将到来,何种的人生是值得过的?当往昔的欲望声名财富都不复有意义,究竟应该为何而活?这部未完成的作品里作者没有完全给出答案。姑妄猜之或许是“善”。For the sake of goodness。看完心情沉重,在作者寻找意义的阶段(文学-神经科学)看到了自己的些许影子。以及最大的收获是或许找到了新的方向:language of life和language of neurons有着怎样的关联(physiological-spiritual man).
评分2017年读完的最后一本,依旧是死亡的主题。心中五味杂陈,一则被其深沉的悲悯心(对病人和家属的体恤发自内心而非形式,也不因见证太多生离死别而变得麻木)和对生命的敬畏(对病人遗体的尊重贯穿始终)打动,二则是归根结底回到那个永恒的话题:如果死亡终将到来,何种的人生是值得过的?当往昔的欲望声名财富都不复有意义,究竟应该为何而活?这部未完成的作品里作者没有完全给出答案。姑妄猜之或许是“善”。For the sake of goodness。看完心情沉重,在作者寻找意义的阶段(文学-神经科学)看到了自己的些许影子。以及最大的收获是或许找到了新的方向:language of life和language of neurons有着怎样的关联(physiological-spiritual man).
评分作者是三十六岁斯坦福大学医院神经外科的住院总,在培训的最后一年被诊断为肺癌晚期。这是他在去年去世之前完成的自传,里面涉及了很多命题:生命的意义,死亡,医学,文学,医生与病人,爱与希望,等等等等。文字诚挚感人,又充满了智慧与爱,强烈推荐!
评分一边哭一边听完英语语音版。
评分看大家都说喜欢后半部分,但是作为医学控的我,前半部分对医学的阐释简直是太精彩。这本书难能可贵的正在于它的不完整,在于字句之间的沉默,在于那些他想说却没有能力、没有时间再说的话。人生就是这样,走过一遍就没有时间再回头了,记下当下是多么珍贵的事情。RIP Paul.
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