The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death (Vintage International)

by Jean-Dominique Bauby

We've all got our idiosyncrasies when it comes to writing--a special chair we have to sit in, a certain kind of yellow paper we absolutely must use. To create this tremendously affecting memoir, Jean-Dominique Bauby used the only tool available to him--his left eye--with which he blinked out its short chapters, letter by letter. Two years ago, Bauby, then the 43-year-old editor-in-chief of Elle... (read more)

Top tags: memoirnonfictionnon-fictioninspirationalautobiography (all tags)

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ReBecca
  • Rated 4 stars

This book is amazing. Not because it was very interesting but because the guy who wrote it was completely paralyzed. He could only move, I believe, his left eyelid. The nurses would recite the alphabet and he would blink when he had gotten to the letter he wanted. That's how he wrote the whole book! Can you imagine how long that took?!

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Community:
  • Rated 4.166667 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4.5 stars
 

Newest Comments

  • Dana I

    dana i said:

    today i'm going to see the movie and i'm very excited. maybe the story won't be so gripping but it definitely worth reading the book as a proof of respect shown to the author. the feel i received when reading the review in a magazine cannot be expressed. i do appreciate this man's willingness and i hope that from where he is he sees that here are people whom he impressed and whose outlook of life he changed

    posted 2 days ago
  • I AM NOT A NUMBER

    i am not a number said:

    You should never feel sorry for yourself if you've read this book, count your blessing and enjoy life to the limit.

    posted 8 days ago
  • Lee R

    lee r said:

    The film is amazing, especially in french! I saw it first and it didn't ruin the book.

    posted Friday, March 14 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • Gena C

    gena c said:

    This story moved one person so much so, that she wrote about it on her blog. Go and read what Britt has to say about the Diving Bell and Butterfly! http://www.brittarnhildshouseinthewoods.typepad.com/

    posted Saturday, February 23 2008
  • Roanna

    roanna said:

    Having been on the other side of the hospital room bed (so to speak) - my mother was in a medically-induced coma for a month and in ICU for three months before she died several years ago - I gained a new and unexpected insight into what she might have felt had she been able to speak. That he was able to transcribe his thoughts using the blinking of his eye - and to be so eloquent with the brush-stroke of his lashes - is just amazing to me. I am shocked and I am touched by this book on levels I had not anticipated. I read it in one day (2 sittings) and am planning on reading it again soon. I find myself wanting to pour over every detail possible, to understand him - as if I were one of his visitors straining to make out his meaning in the blink of an eye. As if I were still sitting with my own mother trying to make out the meaning in the shift of a leg or trying to read her lips when she awoke.

    posted Saturday, February 9 2008
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