Bauby, using only his reflections and left eyelid, has written a languorous and wistful memoir. As a victim of “locked in” syndrome after a massive stroke, Bauby was confined to his bed or wheelchair, unable to move except for his left eyelid and his mind which “takes off like a butterfly”.
At the time of his stroke Bauby was editor of Elle magazine and already planning a book. His plans for a novel similar to The Count of Monte Cristo changed after his stroke, surprising his editor as he moves forward with a different kind of book. And you can’t help but imagine him laboriously blinking out his memories and wondering how he held onto his thoughts long enough to translate them to the page.
Despite his butterfly, Bauby says “I am fading away. Slowly, but surely. Like a sailor who watches the home shore gradually disappear, I watch my past recede. My old life still burns within me, but more and more of it is reduced to the ashes of memory.”
Bauby passed away two days after the publication of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”.