The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This is a beautiful, poetic narrative of a suffering person. As odd as it may sound to describe suffering as beautiful, the author, Jean-Dominique Bauby, accomplishes a striking work of art. Despite the grimness, the memoir is more about celebrating memories and life. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a fast, simple read with chapters no longer than four or five pages. However, the greatest feat of the book is the manner in which it is written. The author dictates the book by only blinking his left eye.To give the reader background, Bauby was the former editor for French Elle Magazine. A high profile, powerful man, he lived life to the fullest- meetings with the elite, mistresses galore, high fashion. The author explains in the book that his life comes crashing down in the back of a Benz; he suffers a life debilitating stroke that sends him into a month long coma. After he wakes from his coma, he is cognizant of everything around him. The only issue is that he is permanently locked in his own mind. Unfortunately, he lives the last years of his life suffering from a condition called “Locked-in Syndrome.” It is an extremely rare condition in which the person is literally locked in his/her mind unable to be mobile or communicate.

The only movement the author manages is blinking his left eye. Through the help of a speech therapist, a common usage alphabet is created. Each letter used comes from approved through a blink by Bauby. As a result, the entire novel is thought of and edited in Bauby’s own mind.
The author’s creativity and poetic expression is shown in various chapters. Amidst this beauty is also a longing and sadness for the man that has to live his life in this tortuous manner. The following is an excerpt:

“Hunched in my wheelchair, I watch my children surreptitiously as their mother pushes me down the hospital corridor. While I have become something of a zombie father, Theophile and Celeste are very much flesh and blood, energetic and noisy. I will never tire of seeing them walk alongside me, just walking, their confident expressions masking the unease weighing on their small shoulders.”

Apparently, there is a French independent movie that came out in 2007 about this story, which won many awards and was nominated for four Academy Awards. Regardless of the film, the book is worth reading because the splendor of the writing and the ease of reading makes the reader want more.

The Glass Castle

One of the many reasons why I like reading books is because books take me away for a brief moment. I learn something new about a different country or culture. Books can also teach me about how the “other” lives: whoever that other may be. In the case of this particular memoir, The Glass Castle, I learned that there are, indeed, really crazy people out in the world today with totally f—ked up priorities that do not make any sense. People who are able to survive from this type of past must have deep ambition and... a lot of therapy. Welcome to life and childhood of Jeannette Walls.Unfortunately, having a drunk as a father and a parent who repeatedly wants to escape the reality of being a mother cause difficulties in Walls’s childhood. The family troubles are further complicated by the parents’ inability to reason and live responsibly. Despite raising children in a household without food or a reasonable home due to irresponsible spending (mostly on alcohol, prostitutes, and expensive art supplies for a fruitless career), the mother refuses to sell family land that happens to be overflowing with oil. Instead, the author and her brother consistently go dumpster diving around restaurants and at the school cafeteria or sleep in a cardboard box or live in a rat infested home. Situation after situation, the children suffer as the parents play.

The author immediately dives into the story of her life- starting at the age of three. At the age of three, her parents allow her to cook hot dogs at the stove because they believe that she is old enough to be independent in the kitchen (or because they would rather not actually parent). Sadly, her dress catches on fire and she is engulfed in flames. This leads to 2nd and 3rd degree burns for which she still has major scars for along her torso. Below is an excerpt from the first chapter after she is taken to the hospital:

“Then Dad got into an argument with the doctor. It started because Dad thought I shouldn’t be wearing bandages. ‘Burns need to breathe,’ he told the doctor. The doctor said bandages were necessary to prevent infection. Dad started at the doctor. ‘To hell with infection,’ he said. He told the doctor that I was going to be scarred for life because of him, but, by God, I wasn’t the only one who was going to walk out of there scarred. Dad pulled back his fist as if to hit the doctor, who raised his hands and backed away.”

The rest of the book is story after story of shocking instances of child neglect and abuse. One such story involved learning how to swim. Her father’s method of teaching her how to swim at the age of six is to throw her into the deep end of a natural spring pool. After a couple minutes of drowning, the father grabs her to safety only to throw her back in the deep end. He repeats this act four times. At the end, he declares the exercise a success and turns the event into a little anecdote that sometimes a person needs to suffer before they can learn.

After these stories, the author still reflects on how much she loves her parents and siblings. In fact, the author recounts as a child lying to the authorities in order to protect her parents; she does not want the family to separate. It is amazing that the author- a successful, Barnard educated woman- could have come from a family such as this and still love the people who raised her. A lot has to be said for a person who comes from such difficult backgrounds and be able to escape.