The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Genre: Adult General Memoir

Rarely can a story be told best through moving simplicity.

There are no lengthy chapters. There are no fancy literary devices or sentence structures. There are no frills. There is only the shining narrative that, through its starkness, speaks volumes about the indomitable human mind and spirit.

At the prime of his life and, arguably, his career, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a massive stroke and enters a coma, only to wake up in a new sort of nightmare. “Locked in” save for his left eyelid, he no longer retains any control over speech, movement or even the necessary—eating, excreting—functions one always seems to take for granted in full health. However, whether for boon or bane, Bauby’s mind is preserved, crystal clear in thought and perception. A more easily defeated one would probably curse this awful irony—-total paralysis without any respite offered by ignorant bliss.

But, not Bauby. He breathes life into his memoir. The scenes are simple, the events, maybe even mundane in the words of someone less humorous, passionate, spirited. On one page, a sentence makes me chuckle at its wryness. On the next, I could be moved to tears from its tone of nostalgia.

I could not help thinking of the French term—joie de vivre—when I finished. Bauby is French..how fitting, right? No, but more than that, joie de vivre is the joy of living…yet even this definition seems lacking and wrong in description. Just as the Mona Lisa cannot merely be a painting, an individual such as Bauby cannot be summated into a single state. I must go by its less common meaning. The exultation of spirit. His story captures and elevates the human spirit.

Rating: Leaves a Lasting Impression