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The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order | 
 enlarge | Author: Joan Wickersham
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $12.49
You Save: $12.51 (50%)
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 19916
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0151014906
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.937092
EAN: 9780151014903
ASIN: 0151014906
Publication Date: August 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When you kill yourself, you kill every memory everyone has of you. You’re saying “I’m gone and you can’t even be sure who it is that’s gone, because you never knew me.” Sixteen years ago, Joan Wickersham’s father shot himself in the head. The father she loved would never have killed himself, and yet he had. His death made a mystery of his entire life. Using an index—that most formal and orderly of structures—Wickersham explores this chaotic and incomprehensible reality. Every bit of family history—marriage, parents, business failures—and every encounter with friends, doctors, and other survivors exposes another facet of elusive truth. Dark, funny, sad, and gripping, at once a philosophical and deeply personal exploration, The Suicide Index is, finally, a daughter’s anguished, loving elegy to her father. (20080624)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
Heart breaking story January 5, 2009
I don't know why I chose to read a book with the word suicide in it, maybe it was the reviews. Maybe it was my cuosity about someone else's tragedy. After all, no one thinks it could happen in their family. Anyway, I'm glad I bought did. I never before understood the long term ramifications that such an act has on those left behind until I read this memoir. I was very impressed with the author's ability to express her emotions in such a personal way. Ms. Wickemsham is a very talented writer. I have just ordered her first novel.
Loving a book about suicide January 5, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although this is primarily a book that dissects a suicide (the author's father's) it is so much more. Like Holden Caulfield, who when he was done reading a book wishes the author was a terrific friend of his and that he could call him up on the phone whenever he felt like it, I hated to let Joan Wickersham go. I so enjoyed getting to know her funny and brave mother, her mother's meddlesome gay friend, her bright, stalwart husband and especially her damaged, sensitive, ill-fated father. This book transcends its topic and lets the reader occupy a carefully examined life for too short a time.
 Dealing With the Unthinkable December 31, 2008
This is the true story of Joan Wickersham's father committing suicide and how she has come to terms with it. It's a fascinating read on how she deals with her mom, her sister and her husband. I found her mom's thoughts to be very believable too. I'm sure by writing this book, it was therapeutic for her similar to my wife writing My Funny Dad, Harry about her dad right after he died.
I got into this book quickly, drifted somewhat and then it grabbed me into it again. You might not want to start the year with a depressing story, but it's definitely worth your time reading it later on this year. Put it on your "Plan to Read" list.
Honesty over Sentimentality November 13, 2008
Wickersham simultaneously tells the story of and tries to come to terms with her father's suicide. I respect the author's willingness to avoid sentimentality and easy answers in favor of the ambiguity and uncertainty left behind. This honest and difficult book is a valuable read for folks whose lives have forever been altered by suicide. I also think this book would be useful for someone who has not personally been touched by suicide but wants to understand the legacy and long-ranging impact that lasts long after the fact.
An Intimate Account October 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this engrossing nonfiction work, the author traces the events surrounding the loss of her father in an eminently readable and gripping fashion. Suspense and empathy dominate this narrative wherein family secrets and dynamics are gradually uncovered and revealed
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