I have seen this book circulate so many times at our library that I finally took a moment to read the front flap before shelving it. (Or I should say, before not shelving it.) It's written by a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with lung cancer in his mid-thirties. What is fascinating is the doctor's attitude as well as the story of his education, from his early years, living in Kingman, Arizona, to his degrees in English and biology at Stanford, to Yale's medical school, and back to Stanford for his residency in neurosurgery. Before he could graduate from the residency program, his cancer diagnosis upended everything. His thought processes show that not only does the cancer itself cause upheaval, but the fact that one doesn't have a handle on the time-frame for one's life makes it hard to decide how to spend it. If he thought he had twenty years, he would spend it differently than if he had ten or one. The fact that he and his wife were both doctors also changed the way they viewed his disease.Kalanithi's personal and professional relationships are explored, as well as his decision about how he chose neurosurgery versus other specialties he saw fellow students going into (like dermatology or radiology) which would give those doctors a better quality of life, but which weren't a "calling."
The reading flows; I felt that I knew the author. His early interest in literature, and frequent quotations from authors evokes comfort. Kalanithi's wife Lucy wrote an epilogue that was as thoughtful as her husband's writing and filled in the gaps perfectly.
No comments:
Post a Comment