I'm looking for something that includes scenes of suicide that delve into the character's state of mind as they go through with their attempt. The more detailed, the better. I'm not too picky about genre but I'd prefer if it wasn't like super heavy scifi or western.
Thanks!
by AHeedlessContrarian
9 Comments
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy
The classic *Diary of a Suicide* by Wallace E Baker
‘Night, Mother by Marsha Norman. It’s a play, but it’s what you’re looking for.
The Border of Paradise by Esme Wang
Also, Septimus’s scene in Mrs Dalloway
A Little Life
*Anna Karenina* contains the most viscerally accurate depiction of a person’s state of mind leading up to suicide that I’ve ever read, starting from months out all the way up to the final moment. It’s also widely considered to be one of the best books ever written, so that’s a good reason to read it as well.
There are tons books about suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, but I believe you are looking for the ones with suicides, not with attempts, corect? Otherwise I could add here some really good written books with these themes (still dark, though).
These are the ones I read that have suicides of main characters, in no particular order:
– The Flood Invades My Spirit by Kenzaburo Oe
(suicide ideation, existential crisis, alienation, lots of thoughts, amazing writing)
– Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
(existential crisis, alienation, lots of thoughts, amazing writing)
– From Blue to Black by Joel Lane
(existential crisis, mental health, self-harm, mentions of past rape, gay characters written by gay man, rock band, old school punk/rock)
– Iron Council by China Mieville
(weird fiction, existential crisis, left wing politics, some kind of punk communism, steam punk, gay, lyrical rich writing)
– A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
(abuse, rape, mental health, cptsd, detailed self-harm and suicide attempts and not only attempts, amazing writing and character that will stay with you forever)
– Girl, Interrupted by Suzanna Kaysen
(actually an autobiography, easy to read and relate, with an amazing movie, this is the only book here where suicide is discussed on every page, but the one who has successful attempt is not the main character, still it has tons of it and attempts, and lots to think of, go through with the character)
– Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
(existential crisis, mystical realism, alienation)
– The Sorrows of a Young Werther by Goethe
(classic, short, not very modern of course, but one of the first ones on this topic)
The Bell Jar.