Reflection on Diving Bell and the Butterfly

My thoughts of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly are mixed. I thought it was a good book, yet I had some difficulties reading it. It had some parts that I could not understand and there wasn’t much description on it for me to understand. There, however, were some parts I really enjoyed. It was written in a unique style of writing I am not used to encountering. It had new words that I learned. It was a complicated story and it all lead back to his main idea. That even though he was encased in this “diving bell” his mind was a butterfly and it traveled to all sorts of places. This I liked, because it constantly reminded me of what his condition is, and all the challenges he most overcome. The story in itself was amazing, but I thought there were things he needed to explain more. He’s description on how this “locked-in syndrome” happened was not very good and was very brief. I wanted to know what caused his stroke and such… Another thing I would have like to seen was more description on the events that occur in the chapters. Bauby in the beginning of his chapters would talk about a dream or story, and sometimes it did not occur to me right away. Anyways, I thought this was a good story, but it could have been better. His hardships were always reminded to me in the book, while I still would like to learn more about them. The inspiring story is remarkable, but if it were told to us in a different view (not what he is feeling all the time) and told to us what his actions were I would have enjoyed this book even more. The book could have focused more on his current state over his past life and his dreams.