I am unsure of my feelings of this book.

When I was first told of it, I had it highly recommendation as a book everyone should read, and especially when preparing for a loved one to die. And as I'm personally very practical about death, I didn't think I needed it.

And then I got told my father very well may be dying, and is refusing surgery and my mother isn't taking it well. And I thought: Would this book help her?

Obviously I couldn't hand over a book I hadn't read myself first, so I sat down and read it. The good news is that it's an easy read.
The bad news is I don't think the book achieves what it want to do.

Maybe that is because it is an unfinished book. The author died while writing it after all. Or maybe it is simply not a book for me, seeing as practical of a person I am.

Some of the negative reviews keep saying the book is how "the upper class dies". And I don't think that is entirely fair. Death is death after all, and it doesn't hurt less if you're upper class.

But what I dislike about the book is connected in a way. Paul Kalanithi isn't only well educated, he's very well read. And he is constantly tossing out names of authors and their works that have very little to do with the story he's telling and then he doesn't explain it. I feel like some of the meaning of the book has slipped through my fingers because I don't know these authors or what they wrote about. I know for certain my mother would be more confused than me.

And as others have said, the epilogue was the best. I think I'd enjoy Lucy's story far more than I enjoyed Paul's.

But despite this, it left behind.. echoes of emotions. Maybe I need to reread part 1, maybe his pursuit of answers would hit me harder now that I've seen the death.