Suicide
Book | Édouard Levé
A moving investigation into the implications of suicide.
Even though the aura of Édouard Levé's death surrounds his final work—he killed himself ten days after he submitted Suicide to his publisher—the novel stands alone as a finely crafted work of fiction. Suicide begins with an ending: The narrator's childhood friend commits suicide, which serves as a launching point for remembrance. But rather than search for clues as to why his friend, addressed throughout as "you," killed himself, the narrator instead explores the friend's unraveling through the depiction of various episodes from his life. As the friend's obsession with death intensifies, an intriguing narrative shift unfolds, which hints at two interpretations. On the one hand, Levé paints a haunting portrait of how the narrator fades from view while reliably and intimately describing his friend's retreat inward until, in the end, "the lull of death won out over life's painful commotion." On the other hand, Levé invites reading the novel as a final, extended literary performance about his own impending death. Either way, Suicide serves as a moving investigation into the implications of the act itself.
-
Books Review
The Loser
Thomas Bernhard -
Books Review
I Look Divine
Christopher Coe -
Books Review
If on a winter’s night a traveler
Italo Calvino
