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Summary: finely written exploration
Review: Amazing amazing amazing!This book was written by a man using his one eyelid. He blinked to indicate letters, putting together words and sentences, paragraphs and chapters to equal a daunting look at life and death. Again, part of my death and dying series - you will never read a more finely written exploration of what it means to be shut inside your own body - Because my grandmother is "frozen" from 2 major brain hemorrhages I found this book fascinating! What does a person's mind do... where does it roam to during the frozen days? It gave me a great appreciation for the wanderings she way have day by day.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing but Disappointing
Review: Although the details of the story are enough to touch one's heart deeply, I found it hard to find sympathy for such an ugly mind. The main character, however talented and heroic he was to dictate his book by eyelash, was an very unappealing character.
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Summary: Grateful....
Review: That's the one word that came to mind after reading Jean-Dominique Bauby's, emotionally uplifting memoir. At the age of forty three he suffered a massive stroke that led to his paralysis, a victim of "locked-in syndrome". That is he was perfectly cognizant, but unable to move any part of his body except his left eyelid. Two days after the book was published in France, he died. The book is truly a testament to the human spirit, and the healing powers of the mind. Far from being a "woe-is-me" feel sorry for myself biography, Bauby rises above that to embrace the life he remembers. A life that sometimes took for granted the simplist of tasks such as shaving, eating, or merely forming a word. Obviously no one lives their life aware of every minute detail as it passes by (except maybe poets), and in fact it's not until something's taken away that we really appreciate it. However, Bauby's book made me grateful and appreciate what I have, and even if just for a little while forget about what I don't.
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Summary: Heroic and bitter-sweet
Review: A little mini-book from Knopf by the editor of Elle magazine who became a victim of the "locked-in syndrome" after a stroke left him paralyzed except for one eye. You can read it in an hour and yet you might be transformed. This is Johnny Got His Gun for real. Touchingly and beautifully rendered if you can stand it, the poor guy just lying there unable to even scratch an itch... And yet, and yet, he wrote this book. Of course it is heroic, and of course he does not invite pity or tell his tale to seem heroic. Rather Bauby just wants us to know what it's like being in his position. Since this is who he has become, this is his job, to inform us. He's still working. He's still got something to give to this world. What we can gain from this is a realization that there are all sorts of levels of existence, and who are we to complain? Beautifully translated from the French by Jeremy Leggatt.
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Summary: An extraordinary book is filled with raw courage & love
Review: Journey into the world of a man living in a state of virtually total paralysis, unable to speak or move. In the authors words he was only "a mind in a jar". At the age of 43, Bauby, the editor in chief of the famed French fashion magazine "Elle", was struck down with a rare kind of massive stroke to the brain stem. His body allowed only the control and movement of one eye lid, yet this extraordinary man grasped this opportunity, blinking out, letter by letter, this remarkable communique. This extraordinary book is filled with raw courage, a love of life and insight that details the world anew. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the publication of this book.
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Summary: It's the little things
Review: Short but really poignant memoir by a French journalist (Jean-Dominique Bauby) who falls into a coma and then is the victim of 'locked-in' syndrome, a condition that occurs when the brain stem becomes inactive. The only things he can move are his neck (about 90 degrees) and his left eyelid. Using his eyelid, a computer device and an assistant, he dictates this entire memoir, that talks about how he misses simple things, like being able to stroke his son's hair, or the taste of a meal that he's cooked for himself. He has to mentally go to the various places he travelled to before the syndrome, in order to keep from going crazy, a working brain locked in an inactive body. While the book is depressing, it's surprising how uplifting it is, in a way. Makes you realize how much about life you take for granted.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This memoir is a tale of charm, wit, and beauty. The passions expressed were poignant, with the author's mind reliving his past in order to contain his sanity in the present. His descriptives were superb - his strength inspiring. To have the world in the palm of your hand on one day and the next day, you are virtually a prisoner, locked inside your own body. His despair was masked with humor and wit and never once did he feel sorry for himself to the point of anguish. Would I have been as courageous as he in the same situation? This is quick read, divided into numerous chapters, each a little tale in its own. You will laugh and you will cry - to realize that life as you know it can be taken from you in a heartbeat and you will be forever changed. His beauty expresses itself through his prose as the reader can see his mind is totally intact, alas, it is his body that binds him. One's compassion is elevated as his sensitivity shines though as well, masking the sadness of the knowledge of death slowly making its way to his door. An excellent book that will tug at your heart. It will also heighten your sensitivity to the fact that despite his disabilities, he still needed the comfort and love of friends and family. The realization that some "friends" could not accept his condition and chose not to visit touched me deeply. He needed love around him more than ever.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Memoir
Review: Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor and chief of French Elle magazine, suffered a catastrophic stroke at 43, that left him in a coma for twenty days. When he awoke, he found his mind was unimpaired but that he was completely paralyzed, "like a mind in a jar", except for the ability to blink his left eye. With the use of this one small link to the outside world and his determination to continue living a full life, if only in his mind, he sets out to write this memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, one letter at a time. This is an extraordinary, uplifting, eloquently written book, told with wisdom, honesty and humor. A triumph of the human spirit, it is a story you won't soon forget, nor want to.
Rating:
Summary: simply beautiful
Review: you how when you write stories about yourself, it almost always goes into the past historic tense... i did this, she did that.... well this book is very very present tense... this is how i'm feeling right now... this is what i am thinking about... and the thoughts are entirely beautiful... a dying man, he is focusing on the beautiful things... a book that make you look at the small things again, and notice the beauty that is in everything.
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Summary: Quite a Fascinating Epic About One Who Lacks All but a Mind!
Review: This book is one of those rare stories in which the reader can truly become physically as well as emotionally tainted by the writer's impacting content. Mr. Bauby was plagued with what I consider to be the most horrific condition that I human can endure. To be physically paralyzed with only your mind as release, is a nightmare that none of us have ever dreamt about. But, to Mr. Jaques-Dominique Bauby, a mind has never held more influence over its body. May you all read this book and discover the power ones mind can contain. No longer was "locked-in-syndrome" an encumberance for Mr. Bauby, but a tool in which he was able to manifest one of the most remarkable and profound autobiographies of our time.
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