THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Former editor of Elle magazine suffers a stroke and becomes the bearer of Locked-In Syndrome, where the mind is a sharp edge of glass but the body doesn’t wish to cooperate. Bauby communicated the entire novel through blinking his left eyelid, as was his only means of communication.
You might expect some tragic, heartbreaking story, full of self-pity and lament, drawn-out remorse over a misspent life of work instead of stopping to smell the roses. Bauby flirts with this, only briefly, before going on to say “If I must drool, I will drool on cashmere.” His unwillingness to descend to darkness made the moments where he did so all the more meaningful.
It’s not a story about despair. Through the resoluteness of spirit that Bauby possessed, many were able to smile and hold him up as an example of what the human mind is capable of, how it can so gracefully overcome adversity. It isn’t a story of despair, but there is despair to be found. My heart broke as Bauby’s mind refused to let go, despite that his body had given up the ghost. He spent his days remembering, filling his mind with sensation his body would never experience again.
The human mind will go at great lengths to keep itself together, despite all the odds. It’s a beautiful sentiment but it’s also absolutely terrifying.
An easy read. I got through it in about an hour and some change. If I hadn’t known Bauby was an editor, I would have guessed him to have been a long-published author whose works I had unfortunately missed thus far. His ease with language is salient, and his translators did a good job of carrying it over to English. Despite that I sailed through it so quickly, it was still beautiful and quietly haunting. Never self-aggrandizing, his brief forays into pity or praise are not unwarranted, and do not leave you emotionally spent.
Great book.
Sounds interesting, but I still don’t think I’ll ever read it or watch the movie.
I loved “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, but the movie I’d rather see is “My Stroke of Insight”, which is the amazing bestselling book by Dr Jill Bolte Taylor. It is an incredible story and there’s a happy ending. She was a 37 year old Harvard brain scientist who had a stroke in the left half of her brain. The story is about how she fully recovered, what she learned and experienced, and it teaches a lot about how to live a better life. Her TEDTalk at TED dot com is fantastic too. It’s been spread online millions of times and you’ll see why!