Reflections after a friend's suicide

April 26, 2017 12:27 PM

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some reflections, magazine or blog style, about a friend or loved one's suicide.

Just thinking about my own friend and how he died at 19.

This one quote from a Murakami book keeps nagging at me. The protagonist muses on how he gets older every year, but his friend won't ever get that chance again.

Books that touch upon this theme would also be welcome.

Thanks.

posted by spacerail to Society & Culture (15 answers total)

Awww, I am sorry. This is not about suicide but about the idea of grief and keeping the people we care about in our hearts. Have you read The Lovely Bones? The protagonist is a murder victim (no really over the top murder scenes in the book, it nearly all happens after that) and the storyline is about her spirit sort of being kept alive by people remembering her. It's a bit more complex than that and the theme isn't really original, but it's a nice treatment of the idea of a complicated loss (the character in the story is a young girl) and might be a good read for you right now.
posted by jessamyn at 12:58 PM on April 26, 2017

David Sedaris's account of his sister's suicide.
posted by JanetLand at 12:58 PM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

John Niven's A Brother In Trouble, previously.
posted by Gorgik at 1:13 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

There is also this essay by Russell Brand about loving someone with a problem (in this case Amy Winehouse and her addiction)
posted by jessamyn at 1:15 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City deals powerfully with the suicide of a close family member. It's closer to poetry than a magazine prose style. The chapters make it sort of like a blog.
posted by rw at 1:44 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but it's something I've gone back to re-read occasionally.
posted by kevinbelt at 1:47 PM on April 26, 2017

I re-read this short story by Amy Bloom on a regular basis - Silver Water
posted by rdnnyc at 1:57 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Guardians, by Sarah Mancuso
posted by janey47 at 1:58 PM on April 26, 2017

Sorrow Beyond Dreams-- Peter Handke's account of his mother's suicide.
posted by frumiousb at 3:39 PM on April 26, 2017

Night Falls Fast by Kay Redfield Jameson
posted by Violet Hour at 3:49 PM on April 26, 2017

If premature death brought on by alcohol and drug use counts, Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift is about the aftermath of a friend dying like that.
posted by praemunire at 4:02 PM on April 26, 2017

All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
posted by dysh at 6:21 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

When someone close to me took her life, a friend sent me this "Ask Andrew W.K." column from the Village Voice. It's about coping with death in general, not just suicide — but it helped me.

A lot.
posted by thejoshu at 6:41 PM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Not exactly uplifting, to be clear. But for books on this theme: Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett.
posted by flourpot at 5:06 AM on April 27, 2017

This is an article that a friend wrote after her good friend/my acquaintance died of suicide. It deals, largely, with her coming to terms with his death.
posted by linettasky at 1:07 PM on April 27, 2017