Bauby: A Brief Summary And Analysis

I think that Bauby left the narrative of the day he actually had the stroke until the very end to keep away any possible judgments of his previous life. During the vignette about his last day in his formal life I found myself judging him for not being there for his family. It seemed as if he put his work life ahead of his family. If I had read this vignette at the beginning of the book, then i do not think I would be able to comprehend the struggles he is going through without passing judgement. I found Bauby’s memoir to be a great glimpse inside the life of living with a disability. Often times we do not get to hear the stories of the disabled without passing judgement and Bauby’s memoir helped bypass that. Many of the vignettes were heartbreaking.
It was very sad to see the kids act the way they did around their father to the point he calls himself a “zombie father.” Another vignette I found very sad was the duck hunt. With Bauby’s troubled hearing noise hurts him frequently, and being unable to let anybody know that the sounds across the hall caused him pain seem horrible. Lastly, I would like to mention the vignette “Sunday.” Sunday’s for Bauby seemed absolutely horrible. Sitting in a room all day, trapped in his own mind with no attention, seems like torture. Throughout the entire story it interesting that Bauby kept his witty sense of humor. Even in the worst of times, as seen in the vignette tourists where he is strapped vertically to a board and mentions people being afraid of a fire, Bauby found a way to sneak in a witty sarcastic comment. All in all, the memoir was a great way to understand the difficult times of locked-in syndrome without casting