For my second book for Lizzy and Karen’s Fitzcarraldo Fortnight, I read Notes on Suicide by Simon Critchley – a very, very short 2015 book. It’s 92 pages in total, but the last fifteen or so of those reprint a David Hume essay on suicide. So Critchley is covering an astonishingly complex subject in very few pages. So this will be an equally brief review!
Not only that, he says he wants to do it from personal, philosophical, literary, religious, and moral angles.
It’s a tall order and, of course, he only scratches the surface. And I think it was best when he nudged towards the personal – not necessarily his own life (though the book opens ‘this is not a suicide note’) but other individuals, famous or not. He looks through the common themes of suicide notes, and considers them almost as art. They appear in the narrative to illustrate Critchley’s point, or to divert the paragraph into a different direction, even though we seldom know from where or how they’ve been selected. For instance, Critchley described this as one of the most poignant suicide notes he’s read:
Dear Betty,
I hate you.
Love, George.
I found the sections on moral philosophy a little less interesting, because they are rather cursory and abstract – and have obviously been considered in rather more detail elsewhere. He can hardly hope to plumb the depths of the topic in a handful of pages. But even a moment like his question ‘Why do we find suicide sad?’ can lead to all sorts of other questions in the reader’s mind, to contemplate in their own time.
And somehow the mix of the intimate and the global, the detailed and the distant, make Notes on Suicide a brief but captivating book. It barely touches the surface of what could be said about it, but it still made me think more deeply about this difficult and curious topic. And that’s probably one of the best things you can ask of an essay.
It’s a short work, yes – definitely more like a long essay – but so powerful I thought. And anything which encourages a more thoughtful response to this subject has to be good!
Anyone in search of a recent novel concerned with the subject of suicide might like to try Train Man by Andrew Mulligan (https://www.librarything.com/work/23346392/book/179360534). I awarded it 3 out of 5 stars on Librarything, so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it, then again it is, as you say, a very “difficult subject”. One probably should not expect to enjoy books on this theme.
As the title probably suggests (besides adapting the name of a famous Dustin Hoffman movie), the principle character has decided to end his life by putting himself in front of a train. For some reason, he opts to travel half way across England, from the south coast to Crewe, in order to effect his plan. The words at the bottom of the front cover – “It’s never too late to get back on track” – hint strongly that something happens on journey which changes his fate. I wonder if the marketing department insisted on this, fearing that this book might otherwise be a tough sell in an era when it is often expected that books (and many other forms of cultural “product”) will be either entertaining and “feel good” or else heavy and serious? I won’t give away anything more than the publishers have already chosen to do.
Knowing your general lack of interest in contemporary fiction, Simon, I doubt this is a novel you would especially enjoy. It does, though, contain a series of overlapping stories, concerning different people whose rail journeys intersect in some way with those of the principle character. You might be interested in the story of a clergyman travelling to a conference in the Lake District, and his awkward conversation with a young woman whose brother died very young in a road accident. You might be less happy that humanism and human kindness probably gets a better press in this book than does religion. Not that it shies away from tackling the truly awful things that people can do to each other, as represented above all by the bad childhood experience of the main character.
One final point in what has turned into a rather lengthy comment. On TV they often say “if you have been affected by any of the issues depicted in this programme you can call our helpline on …” In the same spirit, if anyone who is not a regular reader of your blog has come across this post because they are searching for the topic of “suicide” the web, and out of more than just theoretical or philosophical interest, I would like to remind them that help can be sought from, amongst others, The Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/.
Oh wow. You’re absolutely right, such a huge unwieldy topic could hardly be tackled in 92 pages… but I’m equally unsure that I could stomach reading a longer, more comprehensive account (not to mention how tough it would be to write one). It sounds kind of de Botton-esque? The idea of suicide notes as art is chilling, but also kind of… striking? Intriguing? Thank you so much for sharing, I’d not even heard of this one, but just your review has given me a lot to think about ;)
I have been following your page, “Stuck in a book” for a very long time Mr. Simon and I should say, I have read many of your book reviews and then decided on whether to read it or not. Thank you for sharing your thought on “Notes on Suicide” and I should say it was very interesting to read. From your scripting can understand that the book showcases contrast of emotions making it readable and unique.