61. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Book 61: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (B-)

I don't know what it is about these books my professors pick for us to read... I just can't get into them!!
A memoir, Bauby was the editor for France's Elle magazine when he had a stroke in his early-40's. The accident left him with a condition called "locked-in" syndrome. He is unable to move anything except his head side to side. He cannot speak, he cannot swallow, he cannot use the bathroom on his own. Bauby was only able to communicate by blinking his left eyelid. The best way I can explain it is to copy a passage from the actual novel:

"This morning, with first light barely bathing Room 199, evil spirits descend on my world. For half an hour, the alarm on the machine that regulates my feeding tube has been beeping out into the void. I cannot imagine anything so inane or nerve-racking as this piercing beep beep beep pecking away at my brain. As a bonus, my sweat has unglued the tape that keeps my right eyelid closed, and the stuck-together lashes are tickling my pupil unbearably. And to crown it all, the end of my urinary catheter has become detached and I am drenched" (57). 

Bauby's alphabet from the film

While I can appreciate the pains that went into writing this novel, I find the whole thing to be so inconclusive that it's difficult to read. It is amazing to see this man's life before and after the accident, but there's no developing plot. You go here... you go there... you go everywhere. It's not until the end that you learn (if you didn't read the back cover) why Bauby is actually in the hospital.
The film adaptation, too, was all over the place. In fact, it was one the few movies I actually fell asleep during! Making a film about a man who can only communicate by blinking is not an exciting film. Oh, it's a piece of art, but it's not entertainment. I just kept thinking, "Why??"
Bauby's story is one of beauty and acceptance of the things we cannot change. I just wish it had been told in some type of order...

Works Cited:

Bauby, Jean-Dominique. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. New York:

Vintage Books, 1997. Print.