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 enlarge | Author: Jean-dominique Bauby
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $6.87
You Save: $6.08 (47%)
New (52) Used (18) from $5.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  153 reviews
Sales Rank: 2480
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0007790155
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.19681
EAN: 9780307389251
ASIN: 0307389251
Publication Date: November 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New Book! Slight shelfwear. NO remainder marks! Fast shipping!
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| Customer Reviews:
 A life confirming read March 29, 2008
After reading this book, this mans account of his two years imprisoned in a body that will only allow him to blink one eye, I must daily reconfirm how fortunate I am to type this review and walk about freely.
I cannot imagine anyone reading this without being profoundly affected by it.
 amazing and terrifying March 10, 2008
It is hard to imagine being in this situation. We are given an insight into a condition that makes us think what would we want given such a limited quality of life. I wish we could have heard from his family about their feelings and communication with their husband and father. It was incredible he was able to learn to dictate this book and credit to the women who so patiently helped to give us this short account of this tragedy.
 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly February 25, 2008
3 out of 18 found this review helpful
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is terribly overhyped. Naturally it is a phenomenal undertaking for a disabled Jean-Dominique Bauby, but it is far from a quality literary work. It reads more like a moneymaking venture if it was intended to be published; or marketing it as a literary work was the moneymaking venture. I will see the movie though in the hope that it is different from the book. This book certainly would not lift up the spirits of a convalescing disabled person.
Prose from behind the Wall February 20, 2008
There are several marvelous things about The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The most incredible thing about this spare French memoir is that it was blinked by a former editor who had a stroke and became "locked-in." Even holding the book up to your eyes, free at all times to get up and look out the window or scratch your foot, produces a powerful swirl of emotions: awe at being alive at all, gratitude for not being "locked-in," compassion for this intelligent man imprisoned in a worst-nightmare scenario, guilt at not having done more with one's own healthy life. In this respect the book is not to be missed. The book cleans out the cobwebs of routine, allowing for a crisp new persepctive on reality.
As far as the story goes, the chapters unfold in two or three pages and mostly chronicle life at the Brittany hospital where the author finds himself after the stroke. There are also a few flashbacks to life before the stroke. The book, surprisingly, is almost totally devoid of self pity and the prose is taut (as expected) and well structured. It's about a two hour read and well worth your time.
I came to this book via the 2007 film. I was so moved by the film that I went out and read the book the following weekend. The merits of the film are well documented. Sort of a side note, one way the film diverges from the memoir is in the sexualization of the female characters, ie nurses, ex-wife, lovers. So much of the film is spent on lusty shots that I was surprised upon reading the book that it contains almost none of that. That's film for you.
Flight February 20, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
How does someone even begin to review a book like this? The beauty of its prose, its imagery, the unbearable pathos of the backstory behind its creation. All the superlatives have been heaped on it by others. I just wanted to add another recommendation.
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