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A review by karenleagermain
Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious by Alix Strauss
3.0
Alix Strauss explores the methods and reasoning behind famous suicides in history, breaking the sections based on the profession of the deceased. She also includes facts and statistics about suicide.
I saw this book a few years ago at Powell’s and it has been sitting on my TBR bookcase. I decided to take it on a recent vacation to Los Angeles and finished it up while waiting at a car dealership. I have to warn would-be readers that the subject matter and book cover will initiate some very awkward conversations with strangers. A car salesman seemed to think that I might be suicidal and offered some deep advice. It got weird.
I’m not suicidal. However, this book would not be a good choice for a person who has suicidal ideation. Strauss provides some very specific information about methods of suicide. This is information that anyone could easily find with an internet search, and she certainly doesn’t glorify suicide, yet to a person who might be having those thoughts, I could imagine that reading this could influence them. One of the statistics that startled me the most involved suicide by jumping, how bones breaking and piercing organs is usually the cause of death. I never thought about bones piercing flesh and that is an image that I have had on my mind.
I picked this book because I have been affected by suicide. My father killed himself with a gun shot to the head. This trauma has shaped my life and I’m forever trying to understand it. Krauss’ chapters on suicides using guns was of particular interest to me. I don’t have clarity on the “why”, but I now understand the mechanics of the method.
I found many of the stories to be fascinating, particularly what leads people to kill themselves. I discovered that Dorothy Dandrige is buried in the same mausoleum as my parents- they are death neighbors! Her story is especially tragic. I was particularly interested in the chapters involving writers. Hemingway was such a character. I also connected with the Kurt Cobain section. He died when I was a teenager and was the first big celebrity death that I felt impacted by. I remember going to school the next day, wearing my Nirvana shirt, and feeling a sense of mourning with my friends. It may seem like teenage melodrama in hindsight, but reading about Cobain’s public funeral took me back to that time and those emotions.
I found Death Becomes Them to be an engrossing read, but due to the subject matter, I would be hesitant to recommend it, as it was made abundantly clear through Strauss’ examples, you never know what is really going on in a person’s mind. Also, if you read it, don’t carry it around in public, unless you want some uncomfortable conversations and unsolicited advice.
I saw this book a few years ago at Powell’s and it has been sitting on my TBR bookcase. I decided to take it on a recent vacation to Los Angeles and finished it up while waiting at a car dealership. I have to warn would-be readers that the subject matter and book cover will initiate some very awkward conversations with strangers. A car salesman seemed to think that I might be suicidal and offered some deep advice. It got weird.
I’m not suicidal. However, this book would not be a good choice for a person who has suicidal ideation. Strauss provides some very specific information about methods of suicide. This is information that anyone could easily find with an internet search, and she certainly doesn’t glorify suicide, yet to a person who might be having those thoughts, I could imagine that reading this could influence them. One of the statistics that startled me the most involved suicide by jumping, how bones breaking and piercing organs is usually the cause of death. I never thought about bones piercing flesh and that is an image that I have had on my mind.
I picked this book because I have been affected by suicide. My father killed himself with a gun shot to the head. This trauma has shaped my life and I’m forever trying to understand it. Krauss’ chapters on suicides using guns was of particular interest to me. I don’t have clarity on the “why”, but I now understand the mechanics of the method.
I found many of the stories to be fascinating, particularly what leads people to kill themselves. I discovered that Dorothy Dandrige is buried in the same mausoleum as my parents- they are death neighbors! Her story is especially tragic. I was particularly interested in the chapters involving writers. Hemingway was such a character. I also connected with the Kurt Cobain section. He died when I was a teenager and was the first big celebrity death that I felt impacted by. I remember going to school the next day, wearing my Nirvana shirt, and feeling a sense of mourning with my friends. It may seem like teenage melodrama in hindsight, but reading about Cobain’s public funeral took me back to that time and those emotions.
I found Death Becomes Them to be an engrossing read, but due to the subject matter, I would be hesitant to recommend it, as it was made abundantly clear through Strauss’ examples, you never know what is really going on in a person’s mind. Also, if you read it, don’t carry it around in public, unless you want some uncomfortable conversations and unsolicited advice.