When Breath Becomes Air (Kalanithi) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.... Part of this book’s tremendous impact comes from the obvious fact that its author was such a brilliant polymath. And part comes from the way he conveys what happened to him—passionately working and striving, deferring gratification, waiting to live, learning to die—so well. None of it is maudlin. Nothing is exaggerated. As he wrote to a friend: "It’s just tragic enough and just imaginable enough." And just important enough to be unmissable.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


Possesses the gravity and wisdom of an ancient Greek tragedy.... [Kalanithi] delivers his chronicle in austere, beautiful prose. The book brims with insightful reflections on mortality that are especially poignant coming from a trained physician familiar with what lies ahead.
Boston Globe


Devastating and spectacular.... [Kalanithi] is so likeable, so relatable, and so humble, that you become immersed in his world and forget where it’s all heading.
USA Today


It’s [Kalanithi’s] unsentimental approach that makes When Breath Becomes Air so original—and so devastating.... Its only fault is that the book, like his life, ends much too early.
Entertainment Weekly


Inspiring.... Kalanithi strives to define his dual role as physician and patient, and he weighs in on such topics as what makes life meaningful and how one determines what is most important when little time is left.... This deeply moving memoir reveals how much can be achieved through service and gratitude when a life is courageously and resiliently lived.
Publishers Weekly


[A] moving and penetrating memoir.... This eloquent, heartfelt meditation on the choices that make live worth living, even as death looms, will prompt readers to contemplate their own values and mortality.
Booklist


(Starred review.) A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. Writing isn't brain surgery, but it's rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former.... A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.
Kirkus Reviews