The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
Book Review: Really makes you appreciate how little you're doing
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this, it helps put in perspective just how much time you waste. A person who can only blink one eye wrote a book in a matter of a couple of months. I've been working on mine for a matter of years. Almost makes me ashamed to be able-bodied. Great read to put your life in perspective. No matter HOW bad you think you have it, somebody has it worse.Book Review: A must-read
Summary: 5 Stars
You will read this in one sitting. It is moving, inspirational and beautifully composed. My heart ached for Jean-Dominique and the situation he found himself in, but what courage he displayed, showing that the human spirit is indeed indomitable.Book Review: Inspirational and beautifully written
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book after it had been recommended to me. It was inspirational and beautifully written. Astonishing when you consider the physical condition of the author that he was able to maintain a wonderful attitude. It's a testament to the human spirit and a lesson on what's truly important in life. Book Review: Powerful! Beautifully written!
Summary: 5 Stars
As it is translated into English from French, I am curious as to how beautifully the French version was written. Translations do such an injustice to original works but I don't think anything was lost here.
I had the privilege of seeing the film based on the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby. It is from his point of view. The film moved me so much I HAD to read his book. Beautiful and powerful!
Book Review: A Beautiful Mind
Summary: 5 Stars
I wrote a glowing review of this book a few years back,so I hope the full text of that is still buried in here somewhere.However,I'd like to add one more thing:how sad I find it that Mr.Igoe can call Mr.Bauby's book the work "of an ugly mind".My viewpoint of Mr. Bauby was just the opposite-that his was truly a voice of great beauty,complexity,courage & humour.Yes,to be sure he was a deeply flawed man-(aren't we all?)at the time of his stroke he was separated from his wife,had a somewhat laissez-faire attitude to his girlfriend,exhibited a deeply hedonistic streak,& scattered through his prose are touches of a certain dismissive Gallic arrogance towards those who irritate him.
But the point is,in spite of these deeply human frailties,Bauby acquits himself more than honorably in the wake of the catastrophic stroke that would leave him locked inside his frozen corpus.That he could in fact,create an inner life of Imagination,of Art,of Memory,and still contribute to an outside world(through his newsletter and Foundation) that had largely forgotten him after his fall from grace is testament to the potential and potency of every spirit.Bauby's flaws become even more poignant as his situation forces him to evaluate what really matters in the making of A Life.As butterflies undergo metamorphosis while in a cocoon,so did Bauby's plodding caterpillar of a character metamorphose and transcend the imposed limits of his own prison.I would add that this unflattering picture is painted by Bauby himself: at no times does he try to sugarcoat his own failings.And when your work has been dictated through nothing but blinks,I imagines a certain amount of niceties of structure go out the window.
I can only guess that Mr. Igoe's barrier to seeing the beauty of Bauby's soul is largely a cultural one.To be sure,it is hard to imagine an Englishman writing in such a curt fashion,and I'm sure in some parts French original loses something in English translation.
Are we so used to many so-called 'heroes' in popular culture being so thoroughly sanitized & semi-deified in their presentation in order to 'inspire' us,(from the puffery of Tom Cruise to Dickie Attenborough's OTT,yet oddly colorless portrait of Gandhi) we have no desire to hear a message from a fractured mortal like Bauby?In doing so we forget the real miracle of heroism is that it usually springs not from saints or supermen but from quite ordinary folk with bellies & bad tempers,men who at the end of the day took a painful journey to overcome their failings in order to understand the true essence of being a Human Being.Bauby is one such Broken Angel.His book is one of the few to have a profound effect on my life and I am indebted to him for it.
Having read both the book and seen the documentary,I see a film has been made to great critical acclaim.Apparently it is quite faithful to the source.My sincere hope is that those who failed to connect with the message of the book will be persuaded when its many beautiful images are presented visually on screen.As the book enriched and shook my world,I wish the same experience for them.