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Legend Of A Suicide (2008)

by David Vann(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1558496726 (ISBN13: 9781558496729)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

University of Massachusetts Press

review 1: I agree with most of the other reviewer's on this book in that it is very confusing until you realise that it's not a novel, or even short stories, but more a collection of different view point's. All the separate tale's overlap but the main bolt holding this book together is definitely Sukkwan Island .. a terribley frightening tale with a dreadful sense of forebooding that build's & build's right up to the last page. The first half of the book including Sukkan Island is by far the more superior ..after that it get's abit turgid and lost. But, an amazing read unfortunately based on a horrific truth .. you can't help thinking rather like David Vann .. what would have happend if he'd have actually gone ?? A sad tale all round.
review 2: A collection of short stor... moreies, each of which is like a fictional riff on the author's real-life father's suicide. I read it like a collection of what-if's that change the outcome of his story, including the doozy - what if the kid kills himself before the dad has a chance to do so? All of these stories have the feel of a person searching and searching, digging (including literal digging of a giant pit) for meaning, for an explanation - and the mood is consistently somber, gray, rainy. I loved it - Vann is a master of setting - I've never been to Alaska but I can picture Vann's Alaska vividly weeks after reading this. It will stay with you and you might want to read it on a nice sunny summer day to avoid sinking into your own depression. I also think it is a marvel how the father here is a cowardly, weak, ineffectual man, and not someone heroic or even particularly sad or depressed for any good reason. I would think it would be a more natural reaction for a child of suicide to idolize the parent. I will be reading more Vann books for sure. less

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