- How would you describe Dr. Paul Kalanithi? What kind of a person was he?
- One of the most profound questions addressed in this book is what makes life worth living in the face of
death. We all face death, but Paul Kalanithi knew his was imminent. What answers, or at least
consolations, does he find?
- Kalanithi quotes Samuel Beckett’s seven words: I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” Talk about what that means,
not just for Paul Kalanithi but for all of us. In the face of dying, especially prolonged, how does one “go on”
or, in popular parlance, “keep on keeping on”?
- One of the ironies of Kalanithi’s life is that he postponed learning how to live in order to learn how to be
a doctor. But once he knew he had lung cancer, he had to learn how to die. What are the ways in which he
learned to live…and learned to face his death? Would you be as brave and thoughtful as Katanithi was?
- Describe Kalanithi’s love-hate relationship with medicine. He saw it as a job that kept his cardiologist
father away from home. But how else did he see it?
Sample Solution
