The Suicide of Claire Bishop

by Carmiel Banasky

Greenwich Village, 1959. Claire Bishop sits for a portrait—a gift from her husband—only to discover that what the artist has actually depicted is Claire’s suicide. Haunted by the painting, Claire is forced to redefine herself within a failing marriage and a family history of madness. Shifting ahead to 2004, we meet West, a young man with schizophrenia obsessed with a painting he encounters in a gallery: a mysterious image of a woman’s suicide. Convinced it was painted by his ex-girlfriend, West constructs an elaborate delusion involving time-travel, Hasidism, art-theft, and the terrifying power of representation. When the two characters finally meet, in the present, delusions are shattered and lives are forever changed.

The Suicide of Claire Bishop is a dazzling debut, evocative of Michael Cunningham's The Hours (and Virginia Woolf's classic Mrs. Dalloway), as well as Donna Tartt's bestseller The Goldfinch. With high stakes that reach across American history, Carmiel Banasky effortlessly juggles balls of madness, art theft, and Time itself, holding the reader in a thrall of language and personal consequences. Daring, sexy, emotional, The Suicide of Claire Bishop heralds Banasky as an important new talent.

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, Thriller, Horror, Mental Health, Adult

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2015

About the author

Carmiel Banasky is a writer, editor, and teacher from Portland, OR. Her first novel, The Suicide of Claire Bishop, is published by Dzanc Books (September 2015). Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, PEN America, American Short Fiction, Slice, Guernica, The Rumpus, and on NPR, among other places. She earned her BA from the University of Arizona and her MFA from Hunter College, where she taught Undergraduate Creative Writing. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Bread Loaf, Ucross, Ragdale, Artist Trust, I-Park, VCCA, Santa Fe Art Institute, and other foundations. She's tried her hand at grassroots organizing while living in Mississippi, and studied for a year in London. After four years on the road at writing residencies, she now resides in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memory, mental illness, and modern art are central themes in this clever literary puzzle. Magic realism is an intriguing undercurrent here, but it never overwhelms the plot. Drawing strong generational parallels, Banasky asks readers what endures time’s losses and if it is ever possible to escape one’s fate. Fans of Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World and Judith Claire Mitchell’s A Reunion of Ghosts have a treat in store.

(See my full review at Foreword.)

[Christoper Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Suicide of Claire Bishop is not only daring and ambitious, it actually fulfills its ambition! This is a book about womens' liberation in the 50's and 60s, about schizophrenia, about Alzheimer's, about disappearing bees. What's amazing is that Banasky is able to link all these threads together through the central story of a painting, a painting that should have been a portrait but instead became an image of Claire Bishop's suicide, a painting that haunts her, that gets stolen, changes hands half a dozen times, a painting at the center of a schizoprhenic's time-travel delusion 40 years after it was painted.

The plot is tight and intertwined and will keep you turning the pages, and the sentences are gorgeous and will have you lost in the language. Couldn't recommend it more highly!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carmiel Banasky's debut novel dwells on two long term taboo subjects concerning human life: suicide and mental illness. It also floats along between two time periods and societal issues: war protests in the 1960s and art theft at the turn of the 20th century. If that were not enough the story includes an Hasidic Jewish convert, a mysterious painter, and a wealthy unfaithful husband.

It is a challenging read. I do not recommend it to any but the most intrepid readers. Readers who like to go beyond and beneath the standard acceptable ideas about life, family, and society. Readers who walk down the street or stand in lines and wonder about what goes on inside the people they observe around them. Readers who sometimes ponder on whether they are as well-adjusted and happy as they appear to their acquaintances and family members. Readers to whom the phrase "lost in a book" is literal.

The reward for me in reading books like this is the rich understanding of the breadth of ways that human life is lived. We are all connected, we all need help sometimes and faith in something, and we all need to take care of each other.

[Steph Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtful, gorgeous and intriguing. A must read for fans of accessible literary fiction with fast pacing and complex themes.

[Ruzaika · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review and more can be found on http://reading-is-dreaming-with-open-...

Confusing. Sadly, that's the only word that comes to my head when I think of this book. Don't get me wrong, I was plenty excited when I first came across it. The premise promised mental illness, time travel, art theft and lots more, so naturally, I expected something very engaging, but what I got instead was a spider's web of confusing anecdotes.

The plot was very imaginative, told through the perspectives of Claire Bishop and West- the former, the subject of a painting that depicted her own suicide and the latter, a schizo caught up in the delusion of time-travel that includes a certain painting. Yes, the painting of the suicide of Claire Bishop. I'd rather not go into the story line- you might want to read it for yourself (and maybe you could do me the courtesy of explaining that very unsatisfactory ending?). Anyway, what entails is the journey of how these two characters from very different walks of life unite because of this painting, painted by Nicolette.

Characterization was done efficiently, but I found myself being unable to really connect with any of them, perhaps except Claire. I loved reading about Claire. She was fully imagined and we learnt a lot about her. I found myself wishing one too many times that the book was told only through her POV. West was a very muddling character. I understand he is schizophrenic and so it's a given that the way he thinks would be very different from a normal person's, but I didn't like reading extensively from his perspective because this really befuddled the plot. I found myself really frustrated with West at times, like- WHAT THE HECK IS YOUR PROBLEM?!!

The writing was beautiful, gorgeous even at times, but it failed to impress me since the author did not convey the plot coherently. There were many underlying subplots and they all contributed towards the story, but every damn cliché was used in this book- mental illnesses, bad marriages, infidelity, broken friendships. It's like the author grasped a few concepts- and ta-da!- came up with the story. Maybe the author should have spent more time in constructing the plot, because I found it too easy to disengage myself from this story. Gripping, it certainly is not.

I really struggled to finish this book, but I ploughed on because I expected a spectacular ending. I expected an ending that would leave me truly gobsmacked, but unfortunately it only left me confused, frustratedly pulling my hair for the lack of answers. Perhaps I just went into this book with the wrong expectations, and maybe that is what really highlighted the problems I had with the novel.

Carmiel Banasky can write beautifully, I won't deny that. The Suicide of Claire Bishop is beautifully written and if you love books for their sentence structure or the writing style, I'd recommend this book to you. This book just wasn't my cup of tea.

The story idea: 3/5
The realization of the story: 2/5
The characters: 2/5
The cover: 2/5
Enjoy factor: 1/5

Final Rating: 2/5

[Emily M · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me weeks to get through this book. I almost quit several times, including in the final fifty pages, but I was urged not to, so I kept going.

The premise of this novel is promising, and the first chapter is so compelling, but the rest of the book fell very flat for me. The significant lack of a chronology was really jarring to me, here. I understand that time is really important for this novel, but as a reader, trying to situate yourself in a thousand different places and times and in a few different lives makes for a bit of frustration and confusion. I also felt like this book suffers a bit from "MFA syndrome," in which plot development is really cast aside for pontification and interesting thought bits. And I would have loved to learn more about Nicolette, who is so central to this story, but we never quite seem to get to the bottom of her.

That said, I think the first chapter this piece works REALLY WELL as a short story. Banasky is clearly a very talented writer, and I'd be willing to give her another chance at some point. But, boy, I did not enjoy this book. :(

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED this book...at the beginning. The interplay of the past and present, the variation in voice between Claire and schizophrenic West--it made my heart do things, and I was near tears when I wrote out the anagram of West's forbidden words, "sorry" and "crazy." As someone whose mental health has been on the skids and whose brain often feels like a saboteur, I thought the treatment of West was brilliant. But as the book went on, the plot felt too tidy and sewn up, and I felt neither Claire nor West had really changed for the better, which is something I hear in workshop plenty but had never really understood on the page. I was disappointed FOR the characters, which is its own kind of feat because it shows how invested I was, but didn't make for a satisfying read.

However! I would love to teach this book and found it HEAPS better than that other book-about-a-painting that got all the acclaim so yes I'm going to edit my review of THE GOLDFINCH to recommend THE SUICIDE OF CLAIRE BISHOP instead.

Lastly: damn, Dzanc! I need to pay more attention to you.

[Alexander M. Rigby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this and I am so glad that I did. As soon as I picked it up I had a feeling I would love it. This isn't the first time I've had this feeling, and I'm glad to know that my gut usually can tell when a book is going to be fantastic. I'm a sucker for any kind of plot that deals with art or an artist, and while a lot of this book centers on a painting, and how this very painting brings the two main characters together, it is so much more than that. Carmiel Banasky has crafted a hypnotizing debut that reads like a beautiful song. I became wrapped up in some of her flowery prose, deliberating on whether or not I wanted to go on, or re-read certain sentences again and again because they seemed so original and provocative to me. Both Claire and West are fully imagined and fleshed out, their humanity at all times on full display, the depths of who they are and what they wish of the world always the most important aspect of their characterization. I loved the back and forth perspectives that alternated between the two of them, where their paths continually merged closer and closer together until the very end of the novel when they meet.

The character of Nicolette was the one main aspect of the novel that tied them together, and although I must admit the ending did not explain things as much as I wanted it to, or bring together some of the mysteries that were percolating throughout the entire course of the work, the conclusion was still a satisfying one. I am a huge fan of literary fiction, and this book is a perfect example of the genre. It is multi-faceted, complex, intriguing, and views the world in such a unique way. I'm not sure if there are that many books out there that I can compare this to, and that is a good thing. Whether it was through West's schizophrenic mind or the forgetfulness of Claire suffering from Alzheimer's, Banasky has succeeded all expectations by writing a novel that views the world in a whole new light. I can't recommend this book enough. I will be eagerly awaiting to see what she comes up with next.

[Wafa Orman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, complex, beautifully written book. The alternating POVs are skilfully handled, especially considering one of them has schizophrenia & is an unreliable narrator, to say the least. It's not an easy read, & it took some ruminating about it after I was done to tie things together, but it is a deep exploration of prophecy & self-fulfilling prophecy, & the Schrodinger's cat-like nature of prophecy, where observation & awareness themselves change the outcome.

Nicolette "takes away" Claire's suicide by painting it; Claire's constant awareness & fear of her grandmother's madness enables her to avoid it--but she cannot stop herself from repeating her mother's patterns. West's paranoid conviction that his Nicolette has mapped his life out through her time-traveling abilities leads him on a path that helps him come to terms with his past, to the extent he can, & eventually to Claire. Of course, I expected a glorious resolution with everything tied up in a bow from their meeting, & was initially frustrated with the lack of one...but then again, subverting expectations is what art does, no?

[Nathan Bransford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic debut. Haunting, beautiful and memorable.

[Al Kratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see this compared to The Goldfinch which I tried to read and didn’t make it very far, the structure always overwhelming me and the characters not drawing me in. This however, is the exact opposite. There’s an inherent mystery here and the mystery is even in what the true mystery is. As hard as life is for these characters to get a hold of, the plot could be too. Somehow all of it fits together and the time shifts feel perfect rather than jarring. The ending isn’t expected and is perhaps smaller than all of its build up but also inevitable and true. The West story ends up being bigger than Claire’s and that’s kind of surprising but West is just that big. It ends up making it more like Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest to me than the works it’s compared to in its blurbs. West is a McMurphy where the institution and the fog and the Nurse Ratcheds are all in his head but still all very real and just as threatening. Definitely a memorable read and a hell of a novel.

[Tony Guerra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook Review:
I would recommend this book because I love non-fiction for its anchored logic and reason and from time to time I'll jump onto a book that I find that will challenge me. It's like a college class that you loved because you felt something, but when trying to articulate what you liked, all you can say is, "You just have to take it to understand." Then someone does and you have this understanding between you, but still can't put it into words.

If this was a film, I would definitely start with the line "This painter I know thinks I want to jump off a bridge." My favorite scene was definitely when West starting talking physics and seeing just how much of a polymath this author was, so nice to see physics woven into a literary work. I can't help but think of Poe, not just the loneliness of his "The Man of the Crowd" but also that Poe solved Olber's Paradox in his book Eureka, emotion, loneliness, intuitive science were a draw for me.

I felt more comfortable with West, I listened to him first skipping to those chapters that Will Damron narrated, then went back to the beginning to hear Claire's story from Carol Monda. If you try to solve a non-linear puzzle linearly, you'll be hopelessly lost. I saw some DNF comments on Goodreads who quit on this book early and to those I would say to start with West, then come back to Claire.

[Anna K. Amendolare · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated it. Hated both characters. The subject of the portrait, Claire Bishop. I'm sorry she lived her life by some misguided information, but that doesn't mean she had to continue on with her life, useless, wandering, unhelpful. She made nothing of her life; I found her very uninspiring. The artist apparently did her no favors by "taking away" her suicide in the painting. She shoulda let her do it; she wasted her life.

The second protagonist, the schizophrenic, I found hard to follow and uninteresting. His obsessions annoyed me. I found nothing likeable about him.

The mysterious painter that both characters are trying to track down never appears. The coming together of the two main characters at the end was stupid and a letdown. And then it ended. Lame. Oh, and there was an epilogue--completely unhelpful.

This was a terrible novel and I'm sorry I wasted my time. I am sure someone more enlightened that myself might enjoy it; I did not.

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

bored... Bored BORED, to tears. There is NO story. The author and her clunky never-ending pointless blathering should get a room. Leave me out of your love affair with your own voice. Surrealism is a painting style for a reason.

read the 5 star reviews- e.g. "ruminating characters... wrapped in dense writing," " you might pass by a gallery— or hear a song, echoing through a club, whatever, it’s not really the point— maybe you witness a piece of art that is full. And because you can feel the emotional resonance of the art— you can identify with the woman in the painting, the lyric or the catch in his voice— the art seems to strangely concern you. You are just as much a part of the art as the subject or the artist."

If my review doesn't turn you off, their pretentiousness will probably will do the trick. If you dig it, by all means proceed, becasue that's exactly what you're in for...

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a member of the Nervous Breakdown Book Club, I received this novel for their September pick. At first, I didn't think it would be the sort of book I'd read. But Banasky has a great grasp on pace and narrative, and her choices to explore as theme are complex and inviting. I loved her use of plot twists, and the lack of linearity in the novel drew me in. This is an ambitious novel for a writer's first, and I applaud her efforts.

[Erin Tuzuner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The navigation of person, place, time; only to be hurtled like a rogue snow globe down a skyscraper. What a beautiful mess, injury included. The tenuous connections of "mad" minds, choosing our end destination and all the roadblocks in between. Holy shit, what a novel.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such an interesting read. I loved Banasky writing style and how she carries the story throughout the book. For that reason alone it gets a 3 stars from me. However, I am unsure of what I just read. The ending was a little unclear to me, and almost made it feel like the whole 300 pages leading up to the end was a waste.. with a better ending that tied everything together, this could've been a 5 star book for me.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. I thought this book was going to be great but I ended up really disliking it.

The writing is beautiful but I didn’t really feel a connection to the characters, other than Claire. I don’t normally mind books that jump around in time, but this was so confusing and the end was a big disappointment.

[livie jean]

guess i’m never going to finish a book again 👍 DNFddddd

[Amy Maddess · Rating 4 out of 5]

- I’m a little confused overall, and I feel like the ending lacked resolution. Was Nicolette in fact a time traveller? Did she exist in the fifties as well as in 2004? Was this an elaborate delusion?
- The ending was very picturesque, with the water rushing through the hospital. This was great imagery, but I wish it symbolized more for me.
- I’m not sure how I feel about the depiction of West and his mental health. I feel as though having him as romantically driven manic character who pisses himself at the theatre may serve to perpetuate the negative stereotypes and stigmas felt by those individuals who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, especially those who happen to read this novel. I feel like it was very risky to portray a character with a mental illness when the writer does not have personal experience with this themselves. The result can come off as extremely offensive. (I am reminded here of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’). Having said that, I do still enjoy the parts of the novel that have West in them and do find his love for Nicolette interesting to read about. Heartbreaking to picture certain imagery involving their relationship. I kind of liked how Nicolette seemed like a time traveller that West was trying to locate. This was a little reminiscent of ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ for me.
- This also reminds me of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ because of the painting and the way it portrays evil and travels through people’s stories with them.
- Initially, I liked the depths of Claire’s scenes and of her personality, but this seemed to somewhat taper off. As did the distinction in style and voice between the two different stories.
- This was a library book that I grabbed randomly even though I usually only take out books that have already been approved and placed on my TBR. Rarely am this spontaneous when choosing a book, as there are so many to read in such little time that one must be careful, but I was not disappointed this time.

[Leah Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I loved this book. Just adored almost every aspect of it. I think it has a lot of mixed reviews because the summary is very vague and kind of misleading. This is two stories woven together: the first is Claire, a woman in the 1950's/60's who has a portrait of her painted that changes her life. The second is a modern storyline (2004) about a schizophrenic man named West and his obsession with an artist who may or may not have painted Claire's portrait decades ago.

Most importantly, this is NOT a book about time travel and conspiracies. West's half includes these elements, but they're delusions. Very clearly, that's not a spoiler. There are magical realism elements, revolving almost entirely around the illusive artist, but they do not drive the plot and it's more to create an underlying sense of unreality for the reader (much like what West feels in his day to day life).

The stories contrast beautifully. Claire's takes place over decades and West's over a very short period of time (a week?), but their descent into sorrow and the paths of their lives mirror each other gorgeously. It's a subtle book because there is not a "oh, this is what was happening" type of ending. The curtain never gets lifted. There is lots of mystery. It is depressing, and only gets more depressing as it lets up. It explores some rather dark themes around memory, identity, and sanity. Questions pop up that do not get answered. There are layers and layers to take apart--conversations in one timeline that reflect and even answer questions in another. It's kind of brilliant and I adored it. I did dock half a star though because I loved Claire but only liked West's plotline.

[Claire Gault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this novel left me with more questions than answers, I have never felt more in awe of a writing style and the world that was built, both of which are extremely important to me as a reader. West's spiraling illness and his forbidden words ("sorry" and "crazy") brought me to tears, simply because of how profoundly heartbreaking it feels to witness psychosis, even through words. The chapter written in second person is especially so. I loved this. The author is brilliant and I can't stop thinking about this book. I would give it ten stars if I could.

[Chris Roberts · Rating 1 out of 5]

The long fields were stripped back to reveal a brilliant conflagration

of exotic flowers, all of differing heights and colors assorted

and resorted, painting a picture absent paint and brush,

the tall grass was ripped up at the roots by travelers

to use the thick stalks to wrap around their necks and self-choke out

Beautifully choreographed and last whispering, "Suicide is the new dead."

Chris Roberts, God of Terrible Beauty

[Lara]

You had me at the comparison to The Hours.

[Jennifer Truschka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish

[Mary Makarious · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)
I'm conflicted when it comes to this book... because I found the combined themes of mental illness, dementia, art theft, and female liberation so very intriguing, and adored the first chapter of the book only to think it was very confusing and ended so unsatisfactorily.

The book is told from the perspectives of Claire Bishop and West. Claire had her portrait commissioned, only to be horrified that the painting was actually depicting her suicide. Nicolette, the artist, is nowhere to be found after Claire dismisses both her and the portrait - and somehow the rest of the book circles around this painting and perhaps even more so the enigma that is Nicolette, the artist. West, obsessed with Nicolette and has schizophrenia, had his portraits done by Nicolette a long time ago, also depicting unpleasant things. West comes across the portrait at an art gallery, and it prompts his delusion that Nicolette must be a time traveler and he, through this painting and Claire, can find her again.

The writing is gorgeous, but the plot itself was weak and muddled. I don't know how much of that can be attributed to dementia and schizophrenia if the author was trying to show that lines blur with these conditions. I struggled to finish this book, mostly because I felt like the ending would be so exciting and shocking and found myself frustrated (still am) that it ended without any answers at all.

The true reward of this book is the gradual descent to madness, exasperated by a jarring and incohesive timeline, which shows that no two people walk through life the same way, even interpret things the same way, yet we are all connected and propelled forward.

[A-G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I... don't know what happened to this book. It had SUCH a strong start but by the end I had to more or less force myself to finish it.

Intertwining stories and timelines are fine but in this case they felt very uneven to me. I would have gladly read much more about Claire, whereas most of the minor characters added nothing to the story.

One of the main characters in this book has schizophrenia. I was alternating between this book and Robert Kolker's Hidden Valley Road which is a non-fiction account on schizophrenia, and I think it made me question writing from the perspective of a fictional character with a mental disorder. I don't know whether Banasky has any connection to the disorder herself, but I have some iffiness about it in terms of ethics.

Most importantly: WHO TF WAS NICOLETTE?

2,5*

[J]

dnf. i saw several reviews saying they were bored with this story and that it moved way too slowly, but i decided to give this a chance anyway because i did see several very positive five star reviews as well, and i love reading book with schizophrenic characters, having a personal connection to the illness. unfortunately i fell into the camp of being bored with the story and not being able to find enough interest in it. i'm really upset because there aren't that many books with schizophrenic characters in them and i was really looking forward to this. i did like west as a character but unfortunately that wasn't enough to keep me reading, especially when the other mc, claire, was just a bit irritating to me. this book was actually very beautifully written, so i think it could be a wonderful reading experience for people who like slow moving, character driven stories.

[Kendall (reads more&) Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

#readingchallenge2020 (my book that begins with an S)

A perplexing read; the novel wavered between aspects of intrigue (time travel, theft, rebellion) and reality (mental illness); At first, I felt the writing was confusing, I was lost at times, but kept an awareness that the characterization was designed to intentionally show the reader thoughts and experiences of mental illness. So, it was interesting holding the notion- I was meant to ‘scratch my brain out’ along with the narrator.

The beautiful writing kept me going-when the plot didn’t capture my interest.

But, overall I was hoping for a spectacular ending, I had some theories of DID or Scizo, but it fell flat leaving an emptiness.

[ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this... enough? I guess? Technically I only read about half of it; I was so, so into the first section following Claire and then all the momentum and interest it had built was blown on a sudden transition through time and POV and I decided within about a hundred words that I simply Would Not Be Reading That, so I spent the rest of my time with the book scrolling through to get back to the Claire sections and in those sections I did find the writing to be lovely and engaging and moving and I wish very badly that the book had simply been about Claire and the life she led in spite of her fear and the wonderfully strange portrait that acted as a catalyst for everything in her life that followed. I think that book would have been a five star for me. This one is not.