The Diving Bell and The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

BATB score: 10/10 💯👏

*have I been living under a rock to not have come across this 1997 masterpiece? OMG*

Jean-Dominique Bauby life was soaring as Editor-in-Chief of French magazine Elle. In 1995, Bauby, 43, had a stroke that resulted with locked-in syndrome where his whole body is paralyzed and he could only blink his left eyelid. His mind was 100% fully functioning but everything else is frozen. A speech therapist reads out the alphabet where Bauby would blink at the letter he wants, one alphabet letter at a time, for 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, 2 months, to complete this book. He passed two days after the book was published.

Best to: you need to know the back story of the book prior to reading this book - all the appreciation stems from the circumstances of the author upon writing this book

Best as: even with such adversity, he is eloquent in writing and grateful in spirit ie. “Mithra-Grandchamp is the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away.”

Best for: life is short; when life gives you lemons, think of Jean-Dominique Bauby 🥹

BATB lingering thought: the patience of speech therapist, Sandrine Fichou, to recite the alphabet and to jot down when he blinked, letter by letter OMG; imagine your brain and your thoughts as your only source of entertainment and motivation to continue to live

Best quotes: “The greatest disease is to be nobody to anybody.”

“Sometimes you have to let go in order to truly hold on.”

“Silence is not empty, it is full of untold stories and unspoken words.”

“Life's truest beauty lies in the smallest of moments, the ones we often take for granted.”

“My imagination is my most powerful tool, enabling me to transcend the limitations of my physical body.”

“The beauty of butterfly lies not in its physical form, but in its ability to transform.”