It's about time I got back on board with this journal business. Yes, I am still reading The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, or rather I am starting it back up. I took an unintentional break from it but I'm back.
As you may know from reading my other posts about this book, the author's goal of writing this story is to share his experiences before and after being diagnosed with locked-in syndrome. Unlike many books I have read in the past, Dominique states his purpose in the first four pages of the book. With a quick summary of what has happened to him to leave him in this condition, he launches into a brief but explanatory explanation of his purpose.
"My main task now is to compose the first of these bedridden travel notes so that I shall be ready when my publisher's emissary arrives to take my dictation, letter by letter."
This is then followed by his pitiful thoughts of obsessing over every sentence, deleting words, the right adjectives, and memorizing the text word for word, paragraph by paragraph so that his story may be ready and told correctly. From this point on, the story doesn't talk about his purpose but rather is a series of anecdotes of his time in the hospital and his time before the accident. With each chapter, Dominique's life is revealed, achieving his purpose with the book. The chapter's follow a chronological order, for the most part, starting with his admittance to the hospital to his last moments in the hospital, but occasionally jumps back to a memory from the week before or 5 years before. Most of time the chapters don't transition well, however this style works because each chapter is a new story. Each short story is personal and therefore his purpose is achieved by informing the reader, piece by piece of his life's experiences.
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