An easy read, but genius

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Jean-Dominique Bauby

Vintage…

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Jean-Dominique Bauby

Vintage International

$11.00

Charles Bukowski once said: “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” If that’s true, then “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” would be a definitive work of genius.

The story is a bit harsh, but it’s an autobiography of the editor in chief of fashion magazine “Elle.” He suffered a “cerebrovascular accident” in December of 1995 and was not able to move any part of his body more than an inch – other than his eye, which is his only source of communication to the outside world. The way he communicates is interesting: he has a writing chart with all of the letters of the alphabet, organized from most-used to least-used. He blinks when the person points to the letter he desires, then that person transcribes the letters into words, and eventually, a sentence is created.

That’s how he wrote this book, which is why it’s only 132 pages of very large print.

His body is practically dead weight, but that doesn’t keep his spirits down (get it? his body is the diving bell and his mind is the butterfly?). He uses this book to describe his daily life – the thrill of seeing his children who don’t visit very often, the annoyance of former coworkers and friends who are impatient with his slow communication process. He even goes on to describe how he gets through a Sunday when the orderlies don’t come at the call of his call button. They’re too hung-over from the night before. He also describes how he makes game plans for television so that he doesn’t have to watch one hour of good programming followed by five hours of awful programming, but instead gets to watch six hours of mediocre programming.

Yet, through what most people would consider a horrible way to live, his spirit remains positive. He takes moments to reflect on his former life, but he never explains to the reader how much he misses it, only how his life is different than what it used to be. He never asks for pity, only for someone to fluff his pillow when he needs it. He still finds joys in life, whether they’re as small as putting the letters “t” and “u” together on his writing chart or as big as seeing his kids on Father’s Day. Sometimes, he likes to go on vacations – in his mind – and fly around the world to experience new things.

There are a few pages that could’ve been taken out, but almost every sentence is composed, and every paragraph made, like a piece of a puzzle. You won’t come across many books like this. None can articulate the experiences that this man has gone through to the perfection that this book has done, nor has it ever been this entertaining and easy to read.

Bottom line: This book is worth every penny.