When I first heard about it I did not think it would be the sort of thing I would be interested in reading and definately not the sort of thing I would be interested in watching (having heard it had recently been turned into a film). One of my best friends, a man who is a great deal more sensitive and open minded than I could ever hope to be asked me if i'd read it. "A book about a man who wrote the book by blinking one eyelid?" I asked. "But I like the Die Hard Quadrology, 300 and Wilbur Smith novels - where do you think this book is going to fit into my world view? It won't fit! It will make me feel bad for hating it too" Anyway after a raised eye brow from my much less judgemental friend and with a view to being open minded I gave it a go.... One of the scary "sermons" of this based-on-a-true-life story is that most of us take life and all the little things in it, for granted each day. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book.

the Guardian said " everyone in the country should own at least one copy " . why would anyone want more than one copy . I only own one copy of " The waste land " , so why should i or anyone buy 2 copies of this rubbish ? The one part of his body that Bauby could move was his left eyelid. Remarkably, he was able to use this single movement to communicate. As a special alphabet was dictated to him, Bauby blinked when he heard the letter he wanted to convey. In this way, slowly and patiently, letters became words, then sentences, and ultimately ended in this memoir.

Guardian Angel: The author tells of Sandrine, his speech therapist, who has developed the communication code for him and is helping him regain vocal language. He listens to his daughter, Céleste, his father, and Florence speak to him on the phone but he is unable to reply. Bath time. Bauby describes his daily routine which includes a bath. He channels the reader into the harsh double edged sword that was this time in his days. On one end he would relish in the pure joy of taking the bath, reminding him of how relaxing his used to be. On the other, the nostalgia brings pain in knowing that this will never be the same feeling. Artist/director Julian Schnabel's feature-film adaptation of the book was released in 2007, starring Mathieu Amalric as Bauby. The film was nominated for several international awards and won best director that year at the Cannes Film Festival. [6] [7] [8] [9] Bathtime: His physical therapist arrives for the exercise, “mobilization,” where his limbs are moved. He has lost 27 kg (60 pounds) in twenty weeks. He notes that he has more mobilization in his head as he can rotate it 90 degrees. He recounts that even with limited facial expression, he still has varying emotions each time he is cleaned or given a bath.

Outing: Weeks or months have passed since Bauby has ventured outside the hospital. On this day, he is accompanied by his old friend, Brice, and Claude, the person he is dictating the book to. Though the journey is rough on his butt and winding, he keeps moving toward his goal. Meanwhile, he contemplates how his universe is divided into those who knew him before the stroke and all others. Drawing closer to his destination, he sees Fangio, a patient of the hospital who cannot sit so he must remain standing or lying down. His destination ends up being a place that serves french fries, a smell which he doesn't tire of. the author is completely self obsessed perhaps unsurprisingly and the profundity is not much above that found in a Hallmark card . it seems that the things the author misses most are his trips to Hong Kong , his BMW , his phone calls to important people and generally the go-go life of a magazine editor . one of the worst chapters is when he describes his selfishness towards his girlfriend or wife and manages to turn it into a piece of self glorification . she loves him anyway because he is such a brilliant and incorrible man . well so he thinks . the smugness is unbelievable .The beginning of the book was hard to get into. It was confusing the way it jumped into describing how he was feeling about being in the hospital. I didn’t understand some of the metaphors or if he was talking about reality or fantasy. I did not give up on the prologue and first paragraphs as I reread them to gain a better understanding of what he was describing. Throughout the rest of the novel it was so eloquently written and Bauby’s style of writing was imaginative and intriguing. This book involves 28 short stories, or you can say, pieces of memory from the former editor of French Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was permanently paralyzed after a severe stroke. His only way of communication was by blinking his left eye and that was how he patiently spelled this book out. As he put it, and I firmly believed in him, that his main task was to "compose the first of these bedridden travel notes so that I shall be ready when my publisher's emissary arrives to take my dictation, letter by letter. In my head I churn over every sentence ten times, delete a word, add an adjective, and learn my text by heart, paragraph by paragraph." Nominees & Winners of the 80th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved 9 September 2010. [ dead link] Outing. This chapter discusses how there are two different people that others know of Bauby. The way he was before his accident and the way he is now. Paris: A description of his how his views and feelings towards the city of Paris, Bauby is reminded during his trips to Paris that the city has continued to bustle and time has gone on without him.