Chasing Daylight

This is a first person telling of the way in which one person, who happened to be a wealthy Type A personality, prepared himself and his family and friends for his own death. The additional chapters and interviews by his wife are just as interesting. There was not as much information about the physical effects of the cancer as I had expected.

I am half way through this book and could not put it down! I thought it would be more about the man and how he rose to the top of his field but it's instead a book about facing terminal illness and dying. The author was so brave and his thoughts are captured very well. It's a very sad book though because this man was at the top of his field, loved his life -- appeared to have it all -- and then is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer for which there is no cure. Really sad. It's a reflective read and the message is live in the moment because that's all we really have. I will remember this more as a sad account of someone bravely facing their own death. Reminded me of my father who at age 57 was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died five months later. Overall, good book and inspiring man but the story is too sad for me. I guess I want to live in the moment too and not think on death too much before I have to!

"Chasing Daylight" begins with the words "I was blessed..." and that is how I feel about my discovery of this wonderful book. It seems serendipitous that I found "Chasing Daylight". As I read the synopsis, I was transported back 10 years to the day my 48 year old brother Wayne was given the same sentence that Eugene O'Kelly was given. Wayne lived 132 days from that moment and his experience became even more poignant as I read Mr. O'Kelly and his wife's words. I read the book in two nights and its lessons hit home for me in many ways, one of which is in my role as an educator. I m looking to using such lessons as "managing energy" rather than time and "being open to surprises", among others with students and my work with other teachers. In my family life, I plan to not only make but to keep dates and try to live in the present. Finally, as I read, I also felt a well of compassion poring forth to the O'Kelly andd KPMG families for their loss, but immeasurable gratitude for what Mr.O'Kelly and his family shared in those last 100 days. Thank you to them.

I read Gene's book in one sitting, and will surely read it again soon. It's amazing how this man could possibly face his own mortality with courage, strength, and a new-found appreciation for the little things in life. I laughed (or at least chuckled at his ever-present sense of humor), I cried, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page. This book had a profound impact on me. It has left me with many questions - about my own life and how I live each day. I am going to try to live for those "perfect moments." Thanks for sharing your vision with us Gene. -AA

I was fortunate enough to be handed a copy of this book by the publisher last week, when the James Frey/A Million Little Pieces debacle was coming to a head. It was fantastic to read Chasing Daylight, a real, un-sexed up memoir that deserves the attention that James Frey's books don't. Most of the book was written by Gene O'Kelly after May 2005, when he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer(the last chapter was written by his wife after O'Kelly died). He wrote about how he managed his final months alive; saying final goodbyes to friends and family, rememebering "perfect moments" he has before the diagnosis and experiencing many more new ones after. Although the book really, REALLY made me wonder if I wanted to know how and when I was going to die, it made me think even more of how one should live. The story isn't about someone who threw his life away with addiction and had run-ins - real and imagined - with the law. O'Kelly was an accountant, most recently head of KPMG, with a wife and two children. He was mostly an ordinary person we can relate to who ran his life at 100 miles an hour - and was forced to step on the brakes when he got his diagnosis. Among other things, the book has a great message to all of us who lead our lives at that speed that we should slow it down, accept certain things the way they are, and value moments with family above time at work. I also found the writing extraordinarily real, and at times had trouble concentrating because I found myself wondering what O'Kelly was thinking when he was writing it, knowing that he had seen his "last autumn in New York" and he knew how his memoir was going to end. Facing certain death with his level of peace was admirable. This is a great book.