Highly Recommend Book: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Marcus
Marcuson Saturday, January 27 2018
13 Comments

Hi everyone,  (Thanks, Sue recommend in this book!)

 

I have just finished reading Jean-Dominique Bauby's story "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

 

Unbelievable.

 

What can I say? Maybe I start with words like 'absolutely,' 'fantastic', and 'beyond any doubt' one of the best books I have read. Not only because it is about a stroke, but about a man managed to deal with locked-in syndrome with humour, poetic words, ruminative thoughts while writing this book using only his left eye.

 

Each chapter is a short story, maybe good enough for a friend to read for an aphasia inflicted stroke survivor. Or, a reading challenge in your rehabilitation. It has changed how I feel about my stroke and my future life.

 

That is how good it is.

 

I strongly recommend this book.

"You would have to have a hard heart to watch Julian Schnabel's new film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, without at least coming close to shedding a few tears. It tells the remarkable story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the glamorous editor-in-chief of French Elle, left paralysed apart from one blinking, roving eye following a catastrophic illness."

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/feb/09/familyandrelationships.family1

13 Responses
Nina Wilde avatar
Nina Wilde

Hi Marcus,

 

I knew it was good. Great review by yourself šŸ˜Š.

Sue

Nina Wilde avatar
Nina Wilde

I've read the book previously and now I am watching the movie for the first time. SBS on Demand. Sitting here knowing exactly how it is to be spoken to and not able to respond so anyone understands. His thoughts about how it is. Yeah - I get it. And I get how fortunate I was to receive rehabilitation, how fortunate it was when I had my alphabet board put infront of me and there was a question about was there anything I wanted from home "Pay the rates." I spelt out, well some form of it and I was able to direct my husband to where the rates notice was. 

Now I'll head back to the movie.

Nina Wilde avatar
Nina Wilde

Jean-Do describes only two things aren't paralysed - his imagination and his memory.  Oh yeah - I hear you !! The same feelings, it's amazing, I am in awe of the similarities in responses to the mundane life as a patient. Jean-Do has decided not to complain anymore - again, I remember surrendering to what my life had become - not accepting, but surrendering. There is a difference.

Nina Wilde avatar
Nina Wilde

A really good reminder of how personal an experience is - the reminder not to treat someone with a stroke the same as the last person.  The push I have had  for a holistic approach to stroke be given in the last four years, surely it would benefit someone in the long run if a more compassionate approach was given in the beginning. Have to say I've shed some tears during this movie already.

Nina Wilde avatar
Nina Wilde

I finished watching the movie and have so much respect for the way the movie was made. It so captured the spirit of Jean-Do's determination to be himself. 

So good, the movie was beyond good. During watching this I had many moments of deep respect to bring this story to life.

 

Michael R avatar
Michael R

I'll try to watch it. If I may say, for me, enableme is the best book/movie I've read/watched! Also, at Peter Mac in Melbourne, i saw a sign: I have cancer. But the 'haver' and 'cer' have been crossed out to read: I can! M

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