Safe Suicide

by Dewitt Henry

Against a background of suburban Philadelphia in the 1950s, and the family secret of his father's alcoholism, Henry comes of age as the youngest of four children. He rejects his father's course in managing the family chocolate factory, and goes on to college, becoming a writer and teacher. When Henry marries, and becomes a father himself, he is impacted by the social revolutions of the 1970s, and struggles to avoid his father's flaws. He leads a literary life in Boston, founds the literary magazine Ploughshares, and befriends novelist Richard Yates. During the 1980s, Henry suffers the deaths of his parents, infertility, rejections of his work, and setbacks in his teaching career. In the 1990s, while his daughter and adopted son are swept up into trials of adolescence and young adulthood, and as his wife grieves the deaths of friends and family, Henry confronts a spiritual abyss similar to his father's, and learns to surrender to life, to love, to aging and mortality.

By turns lyrical, quirky, confessional, and experimental in form, Henry's essays build into an affirming and generous vision. While addiction, the uses of imagination, a passion for literature, and issues of heart and soul are key motifs, a bungee jump becomes Henry's central metaphor: "isn't this life? isn't this art? We live and trust in our safe suicides."

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dewitt Henry's penetrating and altogether magnificent SAFE SUICIDES stands head and shoulders above the current glut of memoirs (some of them slipped into that vague pillowcase, "creative non-fiction"). Henry gives his brief but substantive collection the subtitle "narratives, essays, and meditations," yet the effect is of a bildungsroman -- a coming-of=age story -- except that, in this Catholic SIDDHARTA the emphasis is on the more complex latter half of the building, i.e., adult life. Rarely will you read such balanced, heady material about fathering a grown daughter as "wide-Eyed;" about dealing with a son and heir in his late teens as "Besmirched;" about rediscovering pleasure and esteem in the partner of a long marriage than "Arias." Throughout, Henry relies on a rare sensuality, not so much one of tongue and finger as of the encompassing reflection, the unexpected connection. His closing essay on running the Boston Marathon, for instance (and Heartbreak Hill, I must add, was a challenge this college professor met not once but several times), has a title that has nothing to do with stories of triumph over adversity, the wearisome fare of the cable channels. Rather. Henry's final piece bears a title far more full of heart, and one that carries the classic resonance of the entire book: "On Aging."

[Ellen Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Founding editor of the superb literary magazine Ploughshares and prize-winning novelist DeWitt Henry has written a powerful memoir-in-essays. In an age when so many memoirs contain bad behavior and outright lies, Safe Suicide: Narratives, Essays, and Meditations shows Henry in various roles without sentimentality or overwriting. We see him as the son of a recovering alcoholic father, a loving husband and father, a writer, a caring professor (he teaches in the Writing, Literature and Publishing Division at Emerson College in Boston, where he was Chair for many years), and a committed marathon runner. His character, integrity, and strength of purpose come through in all of these pieces, most of which were published in excellent literary magazines. The portraits of his father, wife, and children are especially moving. Henry’s combination of fine writing and vivid storytelling makes for a rewarding, memorable reading experience. Safe Suicide is compelling and beautifully structured. At the scene of his mother’s death, Henry says, “I told her that the love goes on, always; that we—we Henrys—had a torch of talent, vision and spirit that is more than any of us, a privilege beyond us, and that it had been passed from her to the rest of us.” That “torch of talent” is on display throughout this exraordinary book.

Ellen Davis

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Safe Suicide is a remarkable collection. They are more than the stories of a gifted writer who has dedicated his life to contemporary literature. The essays are told by a man who isn’t so much as caught between the life of an artist and a family man, as someone who doesn’t shy away from the entanglement. As I work my way through the collection I am struck by the writer’s voice: at once wise and reflective but still able to maintain both the wonder and mystery of the human experience.

[Red Hen Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a collage of elegant, linked essays DeWitt Henry captures the pulse of his American generation-- partly offering a portrait of the artist, partly a man’s pilgrimage of learning, growth and discovery through decades of social and cultural change.

Against a background of suburban Philadelphia in the 1950s, and the family secret of his father’s alcoholism, Henry comes of age as the youngest of four children. He rejects his father’s course in managing the family chocolate factory for a third generation, and goes on to college, then to graduate school in the 1960s, becoming a writer and teacher. When Henry marries, and becomes a father himself, he is impacted by the social revolutions of the 1970s, and struggles to avoid his father’s flaws. He leads a literary life in Boston, founds the literary magazine PLOUGHSHARES, teaches writing and literature, and befriends novelist Richard Yates. During 1980s, Henry suffers the deaths of his parents, infertility, rejections of his work, and setbacks in his teaching career. In the 1990s, while his daughter and adopted son are swept up into trials of adolescence and young adulthood, and as his wife grieves the deaths of friends and family, Henry confronts a spiritual abyss similar to his father’s, and learns to surrender to life, to love, to aging and mortality.

The drama of SAFE SUICIDE is the writer’s mid-life quest for psychological and spiritual truth. By turns lyrical, quirky, confessional, and experimental in form, Henry’s essays build into an affirming and generous vision. While addiction, the uses of imagination, a passion for literature, and issues of heart and soul are key motifs, a bungee jump becomes Henry’s central metaphor: “isn’t this life? isn’t this art? We live and trust in our safe suicides.”

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most recent fake memoir scandal "Angel At the Fence"--another story too good to be true--reminded me that I wanted to write a review of this book.

DeWitt Henry writes an "old fashioned" memoir that I fear has gone out of style: a considered examination of a life's journey. No amazing out-of-gangland tale, no extraodinary coincidences, just plain old honest writing about his life, his marriage, his adopted son, being an editor and literary politics (don't we know what that's all about!), crazy writers' conferences, etc. The one chapter about Gabriel, his son's friend who dies of cancer, is indelible--and done so not with drama and histrionics, but an understated writing style, sort of the Emersonian "transparent eyeball" that takes everything in.

I love that the book whipsaws between humor and pathos and everything in between--just like life. The book is full of style and grace and is very literary...I wish THESE kinds of books would be on Oprah, but I guess they aren't simple enough to keep people's attention. Maybe if we keep on buying these kinds of books, someone will pay attention!

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry's writing is rare in just how honest it is. It's remarkable, really. You will feel like you're peeking through windows, first, at his childhood home, and later as he and his own family grapple with, and eventually make peace with several of life's challenges -- identity, marriage, children, loss.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful memoir.

[Contrary Magazine]

http://www.contrarymagazine.com/Contr...

[Tracee · Rating 4 out of 5]

i give this 4 stars because this was my professor. and he gave me an A. so I give him an A-.
It's nice when you can really read someone's voice. He tells his story well