The Memoir that Keeps Your Nose in the Book

books:

	• The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order Joan Wickersham Mariner Books, 2009 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Thank you for writing this book

When I first came upon the book review in a magazine I was first stunned then anxious to get my hands on it. You see my Father also died by suicide at the age of 58. The situations and feeling in this book are very similar to what I and my family have lived through in the last 4 years. The way the author goes through her Fathers life and death and the aftermath was incredibly brave. I don't want to say this book was comforting to me as much as it was like having someone that understood. That is no little statement where suicide is concerned. The book is extremely well written. Again I must say that writing this book was a very brave thing to do. I am sure it will enlighten many and be there for many who have lived with the horror of suicide.

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The Memoir that Keeps Your Nose in the Book

Suicide. It is one of the most controversial actions that may or may not be justifiable. Thinking about the death of her father, Wickersham goes through life with many questions. The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order by Joan Wickersham splendidly gives a realistic experience of when a family member commits suicide and it's effects. She combines sadness and confusion, which makes the readers wonder why people commit suicide. Also, she provides a detailed insight to her past and years after her father's death in chronological order, which makes reading very easy. While looking at her past, she examines every detail of what her father has done like his business failures and how he reacted, and she includes the psychological impacts on the family such as her sons didn't talk to her after knowing the truth. Joan Wickersham takes a brave and dangerous journey on writing about her own feelings as she suffers from the loss because it is hard to write about the death of a relative. She blows the reader's mind away by being emotionally realistic by trying to deviate from the truth by, "I felt like I'd lost all of them, except him" (103). The readers who have suffered from a loss would feel compassion and would connect their experience with hers. For the readers who have not had any kind of experience of suicide, the book makes them think about what would happen to them if they were put in her position. People interested in psychology and the impacts of suicide on a family should definitely read this book. Wickersham will never find the reason of the suicide. Even years after her father's death, she is still haunted by her memories of him.

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"Oh no" and "Of course"

The people we lost and the events of their deaths may differ, but every survivor of suicide seems linked in an ineffable way.

I can relate

My father recently died by suicide. This book helped to confirm my feelings and help me know what might lie ahead.

My review of The Suicide Index

The Suicide Index was a terrific read. I have had suicide in my immediate family so I was anxious to read the book. The author did a great job. I felt so much of what she felt going through this to discover the "WHY?" As well, she put into words so beautifully, things that I felt but could not express as eloquently as she. I give this book 5 stars and suggest it be read by anyone, male or female, experienced suicide or not. You do not have to experience suicide to appreciate the knowledge you will gain. Anyone can learn how the fallout affects those left behind when this occurs, and since it occurs so often, I recommend it for all to read.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

One winter morning in 1991, Joan Wickersham?s father shot himself in the head.The father she loved would never have killed himself, and yet he had.His death made a mystery of his entire life. Who was he? Why did he do it? And what was the impact of his death on the people who loved him? Using an index?that most formal and orderly of structures?Wickersham explores this chaotic and incomprehensible reality. Every bit of family history, every encounter with friends, doctors, and other survivors, exposes another facet of elusive truth. Dark, funny, sad, and gripping, at once a philosophical and a deeply personal exploration, The Suicide Index is, finally, a daughter?s anguished, loving elegy to her father.

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