by Amelia Chong
Once upon a time, I was one of those who utterly disliked non-fiction books. I remember back when I was in late primary and high school, I was obsessed with the world of worded fiction. I would read so much during school, mostly because it was a great escape from a boring classroom, to the point where the teachers would tell me off for not paying attention in class. Throughout my time in school, books served as a solace away from reality instead of providing me practical knowledge and insight due to my preference for fiction over non-fiction. As a result, I stepped out of high school without proper shape in my thoughts.
Now, don’t get me wrong, fiction is great! I’m sure most, if not all, avid readers started developing an affinity for reading with fiction; it is a great first step into the vast universe of books. Truth be told, my first encounter with non-fiction was pretty unexpected; I only picked it up just because I thought the cover was pretty. This was the cover of Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, and it is a book I would highly recommend to everyone, especially to those who want to take their first dip into non-fiction. However, Gladwell’s way with words, the way he turns facts and otherwise monotonous words into captivating splatters of paint on a canvas, makes this change in the reading genre surprisingly easy to adapt to.
Although I may seem to be advocating strongly for Gladwell’s work right now, that is not what I will be writing about here. In fact, I will be talking about a very intriguing subcategory of non-fiction: memoirs.
Right off the bat, what is a memoir? Many use ‘memoir’ and ‘autobiography’ interchangeably, but I would beg to differ. While an autobiography tells the entire life of the writer, more so to present facts, a memoir is different as it focuses only on a certain part of the writer’s life with a more emotional tone. As such, incredibly moving and emotionally packed pieces of writing can be found in this genre, such as the one I am about to dive into.
Paul Kalanithi was an aspiring neurosurgeon who was brilliant in his field. We are taken through his university and work experience while being exposed to different aspects of his life such as his interests, the different people he meets, and most importantly, his career. As Kalanithi climbs his way up during his residency, he wrestles with the notion of death as he encounters patients that are held to unfortunate fates, unknown to the fact that his fate will be no less unfortunate. Kalanithi’s world comes crashing down on him when he is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and we are presented with his internal struggles as he writes about how it was like sitting on the opposite side of the table in a doctor’s room. Such is the story told in When Breath Becomes Air.
When I was reading this book, I was hit by the fact that life is incredibly fragile and that so much can change within a short time. From seeing how crushed Kalanithi was when he was officially diagnosed, to his diligence working on this memoir on his deathbed, I was fully enamored by his writing. Truth be told, I was left tearing up by the time I closed this book. It felt like I had lived a bleak yet robust life, suffered all of the pain and grief right alongside Kalanithi, and died surrendering to lung cancer myself. The way Kalanithi creates paintings on his inner turmoil is profound and thought-provoking thanks to his passion for literature and poetry. When Breath Becomes Air allows us to take a peek into the mind of someone when they are faced with a life-changing—nay—a life-shattering event that blows them out of their course of life completely, giving us a chance at experiencing it for ourselves through this book.
Memoirs come in many forms; some write in the form of a narrative while some may write in the form of poetry. The writer can choose to put any amount of emotion into their memoirs and the outcome is more like a movie of the life of someone whom you know is real rather than an elaborate essay of facts.
Unlike autobiographies which are almost exclusively reserved for people with a name to themselves, memoirs can be written by anyone, anyone who has a story to tell. And that is the beauty of memoirs; it is a collection of memories of someone who exists or existed. Memoirs are like a portal with the ability to transform you into someone else who lived a life just as vivid and colorful as yours, even if just for 228 pages.