Perspective

Jean-Dominique Bauby is an educated man who has experienced things in his life that most people only dream about. Jean does not claim to understand the stroke that left him paralyzed or the locked-in syndrome that confines him to a diving bell. Jean is an ordinary man who has suffered a terrible tragedy. Jean provides the reader with a real world viewpoint of his condition, leaving the reader free of medical terminology.

The reader is intrigued by Jean's story. It is difficult to imagine having life cut short and reduced to laying immobile in a bed unable to communicate with anyone. Jean draws the reader into his life so that the reader quickly forgets that Jean is blinking out the entire book letter by letter. The book is written from Jean's perspective. The reader experiences events as Jean does, with the exception that the reader does not sense...