Will Byrnes's Reviews > The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jean-Dominique Baube, the forty-something editor of Elle magazine in Paris, husband, father, was stricken by a rare brain disease. After several weeks in a coma he awoke to find that he was a prisoner inside his own body, with control over only his left eye, and motion limited to twisting his head left and right, somewhat. Yet this man managed, with help, to not only maintain his sanity and his optimism, but his appreciation of beauty and his sense of humor. This is a case in which imagination is a critical tool to one’s very survival. The guy wrote a book using little more than his left eye blinking code to an interpreter. This is not at all a depressing memoir. It is inspiring. In fact it is one of the most positive, uplifting things I have ever read.