A number of chaplain and pastor friends had recommended this memoir and it was a great recommendation. Kalanithi narrates his vocational journey through degrees in literature and philosophy to become a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, only to be struck by cancer. As the doctor "adds on" patient in his 30s, his questions about life and death and meaning remain and intensify.

The writing is exquisite, drawing from literature and history and the depths of human understanding. At several points in describing his work as a doctor and neurosurgeon, Kalanithi sounds like my colleagues in pastoral care, for example, in this piece which links to liturgical/holy space: Openness to human relationality does not mean revealing grand truths from the apse [the area behind the altar]; it means meeting patients where they are, in the narthex or nave [gathering space or primary seating space], and bringing them as far as you can (96).

In one of the poignant times of change Kalanithi draws on the words of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, "I can't go on. I'll go on" ("The Unnameable," 1954; quoted in this book, 149). How many days in how many ways is this our human condition and, thankfully, the tenacity of the human spirit?

Thanks to Kalanithi's wife Lucy , his family, and editors for seeing this book to completion after his death.