The Diving Bell and the Butterfly : A Memoir of Life in Death

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Summary: A truely important book by an important person.
Review: As a physical therapist and movement scientist who appreciates human motion each day, I found my appreciation humbled and heightened. A book to stop you whereever you are --and remind you that life is less about how things are and more about how you choose to experience them. This was an impressive man.

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Summary: Unbelievable, breathtaking account of true inspiration
Review: This book was by far the best I have ever read. His writing style carried you through the book, leaving me wanting more. I sighed at the end of every chapter and I couldn't put it down. I fell deeply into book, when I finished the last page I immediately started reading it again. Beautifully written, truly inspirational.

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Summary: An exquisite account of finding life in death
Review: Readers with souls will fully appreciate the gift that this author generously devoted his remaining time on earth to share with us. Without self pity or bitterness, Jean-Dominique Bauby courageously and vividly expresses his cherished identities (as writer/editor/father/husband/lover/ bon vivant) and eschews his forced exile as a paralyzed inmate in a special French hospital. This small book provides a useful and thought-provoking lesson for those too taken up with satisfying their own creature comforts to experience the richness of life that is passing them by. Read it and weep. Read it and learn. But most importantly, read it and celebrate life.

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Summary: ...wow.......
Review: This book moved me so deeply that I actually feel that my life may be more complete for having read it.

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Summary: I can't get this story out of my head.
Review: We all take our ability to communicate--on so many levels--for granted. For Bauby, all those outlets were cut off in a blink of an eye by a cataclysmic stroke; only through his ability to blink one eye did he retain one tenuous line of communication with the world around him. I understand why Bauby wrote this book, why he needed so badly to communicate with us. I marvel at the tenacity and focus and spirit that allowed him to do it. If you have any doubts about this book, give it a try: it's a short read and, in my opinion, it will make you appreciate the little things in your life all that much more.

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Summary: Excellent book showing the thoughts of a paralysed man.
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read and the reader actually learns that those who are termed as 'vegetables' etc. can actually still think and live as we do, with som help. The book is moving and an insight into a world we know nothing about. It is an amazing, yet tragic story with true depth. Definately ressommended

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Summary: An absolute joy!This opens your eyes to the sanctity of life
Review: Bauby's book is undoubtedly the most moving i have ever read. Telling the true story of a man who has been paralysed by a stroke, it highlights the thin line between life and death that the majority of us are happy to ignore. It opens the eyes to the sanctity of life and certainly had a profound effect on the way i carry out mine on a day to day basis. Its short, which helps you to digest what it is saying, and is also very easy to read. I can only thank God that Bauby was kept alive long enough to finish the book, and i weep that his life wasn't ewxtended long enough for another one to be written. I loved it

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Summary: A touching, poignant triumph over life's afflictions.
Review: Bauby, slapped to a wheelchair during the razor-sharp edge of his life, paints a humorous and endearing portrait of a very painful and grave time of his life.His writing is as dignified as his humility; a surprisingly refreshing memoir.

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Summary: AS a rehabilitation coordinator it held a fascination for me
Review: Working in rehabilitation I was captivated by the book and the experiences of a "locked in" person, one I had only speculated about in the past when working with such persons. It was excellent to read of the author's experiences, and his determination to write the book against such odds. Could I have shown that courgae and determination in his place...probably not.

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Summary: Does the Butterfly ever die ?
Review: For someone like me-over 50 and in a high pressure job,the possibility of a stroke always lurks near,hence there was a certain morbid fascination as I started the book.Bauby's account is never mawkish,never begs for pity,and does not dwell in the despair which he must have felt more often than the book suggests.For me, the most moving part of the book was Bauby's recounting his inability to reply audibly, immediately and wittily to comments because "the keenest rapier grows dull and falls flat when it takes several minutes to thrust it home", surely the greatest of the frustrations of this intelligent and very much alive man.The Butterfly does triumph in the end, and one is led inevitably to mankind's oldest question.Does the Butterfly live even now?