Reflection on "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

The book was good and I liked it. I personally thought that for a book written by a guy who could only blink his left eye it was well written. I liked the book because even though there were some weaknesses, they were strongly outweighed by the strengths. One of the strengths was the quality of writing. The book was written by a man who was generally cut off from the outside world, and yet he managed to have the story flow with a very good rhythm. I also liked the point of view in the book. The fact that he is, “locked in”, makes for an interesting point of view on things. I personally have always wondered what it would be like to be in a coma, and to have someone with writing skills tell the story from that position is incredible. I also enjoyed the content of the story. I thought the way that he went through events in his life that came to him in his state was very interesting. In fact, it almost makes me wonder what I would remember if I was in that condition. The book was good but it also had weaknesses. One flaw that I had a problem with was the frequency with which he would jump in and out of his real life and past life. This constant switching back and forth was a little annoying and did make the book a little less enjoyable to read. While reading the book, I didn’t like the story very much for the most part because of this switching of storylines, but now that I am done reading the book, I am glad that I read it because in hindsight it was a fairly good story. The fact that a man who is unknowingly writing his last memories, feelings,and thoughts can achieve the goal of a book this length blinking out the entire thing with his left eye is simply amazing. The fact that he wrote the book that way give you an even greater apreciation for the quality of the story.