When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this a few years ago, but somehow did not add it to my list. Re-reading it again now, I am struck again with Kalanithi's insights into life and death. Throughout his life, Kalanithi seeks for understanding about life, and wants to make a difference. He uses language, reading and writing, and he uses medicine, as a surgeon. When he finds out about his cancer he struggles to know how to spend his remaining time. His love for his wife and daughter remind us that the relationships we make here are really the best way for us to understand life and create a future.

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formaldehyde is a powerful appetite stimulant

Cadavers reverse the polarity.  The mannequins you pretend are real, the cadavers you pretend are fake.

Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder wherein one loses the ability to see faces.  Pretty soon I would have it hacksaw in hand.

we were all silently apologizing to our cadavers, not because we sensed the transgression but because we did not.

All of medicine, not just cadaver dissection, trespasses into sacred spheres.  Doctors invade the body in every way imaginable.

What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?

I began to suspect that being so close to the fiery light of such moments only blinded me to their nature, like trying to learn astronomy by staring directly at the sun.

When there's no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon's only tool.

The root of disaster means a star coming apart

A tureen of tragedy was best allotted by the spoonful

What kind of life exists without language?

the defining characteristic of the organism is striving.