Reflecting on ‘The Diving Bell’, I respect Jean’s attempt to create a masterpiece during his “locked-in syndrome.” I understand that it must be very difficult to write a memoir when you cannot transfer and organize your thoughts out loud or on paper but being the editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine I was expecting more.
The memoir ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ by Jean-Dominique Bauby was not the type of book I would normally choose to read. It did not have any of the characteristics of a book that I would find interesting. There were many different reasons I did not like ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.’ First, I am aggravated with the attention getter in the beginning which indeed caught my full attention, but was soon lost after the first couple chapters. I was extremely bored and completely uninterested the book because the following chapters made no sense. It skipped around to different subjects and that made it very hard to understand what was going on. Secondly, I feel it didn’t come together in the end and the book was just full of things he would dream and random memories that could not relate to each other. I feel the book had no purpose because Jean did not seem to live a thrilling life, or one exciting enough to write about. Thirdly, I couldn’t follow Jean’s thought process because his dreams and memories were not relative to each other at all. After reading the back cover I thought the book was completely about him being a quadriplegic. I believe the book should have revolved around that more. Since I found none of the characteristics of the book appealing it made it impossible to indulge myself in such a dull book.
Overall, if I were given a choice I would not have read this book at all. I would have chosen a book that was more straightforward in understanding with a character that gives lots of details and explains things thoroughly where something I'm interested in takes place. I would never recommend ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ to anyone looking for a book to read during their down time.
Overall, if I were given a choice I would not have read this book at all. I would have chosen a book that was more straightforward in understanding with a character that gives lots of details and explains things thoroughly where something I'm interested in takes place. I would never recommend ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ to anyone looking for a book to read during their down time.
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