Books about suicide, with suicide in the title, or in which a character kills (or tries to kill) themself—but not books by writers who committed suicide; there is another list for that already.
Résumé
"Razors pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acids stain you,
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful.
You might as well live."
—Dorothy Parker (1925)
Résumé
"Razors pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acids stain you,
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful.
You might as well live."
—Dorothy Parker (1925)
708 books ·
495 voters ·
list created December 15th, 2009
by Phillip Edwards (votes) .
Phillip
5185 books
139 friends
139 friends
Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large)
546 books
365 friends
365 friends
Kathleen
2861 books
174 friends
174 friends
Harold
318 books
45 friends
45 friends
Greyweather
2660 books
65 friends
65 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads
3386 books
851 friends
851 friends
Adam
2430 books
254 friends
254 friends
Thom
6022 books
294 friends
294 friends
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Adam
(new)
Dec 14, 2009 06:46PM
Um, what if the character almost commits suicude but dosent??? Can i vote? Its called Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson- great book.
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Funny you should ask that, I was just about to change the wording to include attempted suicide as well. Feel free to add it.
Phillip wrote: "Funny you should ask that, I was just about to change the wording to include attempted suicide as well. Feel free to add it."Dear Philip, I want to add non-fiction accounts of families struck by suicide and popular non-fiction about suicide in general. Should I put such here or start another list ? Excellent list topic, BTW, --Thom
Non-fiction is fine - I'd already put Camus on the list, and your message reminded me of The Scent of Dried Roses by Tim Lott. I'll be interested to see what other books there are in that vein.
Curious why Gatsby is such a run-away popular choice. I recall that Myrtle's husband killed himself at the very end, but was there any other discussion of suicide that my fossilized mind can't recall? It's hard for me even to think of Gatsby as a book involving suicide in any significant way, though in fact a suicide of a relatively minor character occurred.
I originally meant to stipulate the suicide of a major character, but then again the actions of minor characters can have a major effect (e.g. Little Father Time in Jude the Obscure) and Myrtle's husband does kill Gatsby before shooting himself which is a fairly significant plot development...but there are better candidates for the top spot for sure.
Sorry, but nobody commits suicide in the Shawshank Redemption.Maybe in the movie, but not in the novella
There's a book I could add, but I don't want to create spoilers for people who haven't read it. Oh well...
The Sorrows of Young Werther should be #1 on the list as it is not only about suicide, but is one of the ur-novels about suicide, and caused some suicides !










