“My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly.”
― Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has been on my TBR list for a while because of the unique way it was written. Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke in December 1995. It left him fully paralyzed and unable to communicate, although he was fully conscious of what had happened to him.

His stroke caused what is called Locked-in Syndrome, which is a rare neurological disorder characterized by complete paralysis of voluntary muscles. The author was able to use his left eyelid. He began dictating his remarkable story to his speech therapist by spelling out each letter of each word.

They used a system called the Silent Alphabet, where friends and family would recite the letters of the alphabet. Bauby would blink at the letter that needed to be spelled out.

It took 200,000 blinks to complete his 130-page memoir, which is a combination of essays and personal thoughts about what his life was like before and what his life has become because of his stroke.

This story and series of essays is beautiful. How can I not give it five stars for its beauty, honesty, and the manner in which it was written?

“I am fading away. Slowly but surely. Like the sailor who watches his home shore gradually disappear, I watch my past recede. My old life still burns within me, but more and more of it is reduced to the ashes of memory.”― Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly