Review of "When breath becomes air"

I recently completed reading "When breath becomes air" by Paul Kalanithi. While knowing the fate of Paul from starting it was a compelling read and it did raise some important points which anyone with "existential crisis" would have thought about.
We as humans identify ourselves to a particular identity and ask ourselves what makes us us. This leads to asking the meaning of one's life and in turn dictates what would one want to do with one's life. People with this strong sense of identification have to justify themselves their existence and their actions. Paul's case was no different.
His search for the difference between life and death and what made death so alluring a concept was crucial
in making his life decisions. He learnt english, philosophy, the workings of the brain to understand what was the
meaning of life and how did death change it. His sense of importance, a hubris, if I might add, of his life is prevalent and maybe even characteristic of humans. What makes me me.
The book offers an insight into his thought processes and mind, the things which make Paul Paul. Having been to the best of the schools in the world, his was definitely a uneasy and questioning mind. This quality is greatly
appreciated in any intellectual school. Most probably because the intellectuals schools has people who themselves were grappled by questions about existence, realism, importance in the promenade of their youths and these questions withered away with age. Not to say they were solved. They never are. One just learns to ignore and even gets comfortable with fat paychecks and easy life.
Paul did not venture into the territory of understanding death after becoming a neurosurgeon. This was the
backdrop in which his the story plays, a real life story. It is accepted that the life of a doctor, a neurosurgeon at that is quite tough. But as he mentions, it was a calling not a choice. Calling is what best justifies the existence of a person who has a strong sense of existence. Existing for the sake of existing is too trivial (and frowned upon) a reason and one needs to do better. Guided by the great minds who have walked the Earth he tries to find his calling too, a justification for his existence.
The story is of sorrow and pain but it is somehow not obvious because of unwavering tone in Paul's writing.
He was steady on the operating table and on the typewriter too, with not too many emotions. A cut two milimeters below can damage and hence one needs to be precise and sharp. It was a beautiful piece of writing.
Also, Paul would have been one of the best doctors around, had he lived. Having snatched everything he yearned to live for, this is a tale of sadness. What goes around doesn't come around. He was living in the future and the future refused to come.
The return to theism was quite spectacular and it give a key insight into his mind. Men are guided by meaning in their lives. For Paul the absence of God meant that the scientific facts were correct but there was no meaning. It was merely a giant machine roaring and moving. His and quite often all the other theists have but this argument for their theism. Our lives would not make sense if not for a higher purpose, a meaning of sorts. We are not ready to accept that there might be no meaning of life. That we are just a stupid lot living and we are all meaningless.
Overall, the book was a good read and it made me look through a different lens of life.