Why Suicide?

“A must-read book for anyone whose life has been touched by suicide.  It’s compassionate, informative, and heartfelt.  Do yourself a favor and start the healing with this splendid book!”  — Dear Abby

This is exactly the book I searched for, but did not find, after my sister took her life nearly twenty years ago. What Eric Marcus knows so well is that for those of us left grieving, suicide is an emotional cataclysm whose shock waves pummel us with too many questions, questions that multiply too quickly and too painfully, often for years to follow. Those questions, and their possible answers, are the backbone of this plainspoken, kind, consoling book–woven together with the reflections of people who, like the author, have endured this particularly cruel and lonely kind of heartbreak. What survivors of suicide need most of all is a wise comrade, not a counselor. Eric Marcus is that very comrade.

— Julia Glass, National Book Award–winning author of I See You Everywhere, Three Junes, and The Widower’s Tale

Available Sept. 1, 2010

By Eric Marcus
Publication Date:  September 1, 2010
Publisher:  HarperOne division of HarperCollins

I’m sorry that you have any reason to read this book.  But the sad fact is that almost everyone is touched at some point in life by suicide, whether it’s the suicide or attempted suicide of someone we know or our own passing self-destructive thoughts.

No matter what the circumstances, there are always questions for those of us who are affected by suicide.  When I was twelve, my father took his life.  His death was devastating, the circumstances painfully perplexing and embarrassing.  I was hurt, angry, guilt-ridden, and ashamed, and I didn’t know why.  I had so many questions, but there was no one who could provide the answers and perspective I desperately needed.  The adults in my life didn’t have the answers to give and, as I later learned, had few places in 1970 to find them even if they had looked.  And to be fair, most of them were devastated themselves and had little emotional energy or wherewithal to consider what was going on for a well-behaved and outwardly brave little boy who didn’t shed a tear at his father’s funeral.

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It would have been such a comfort to have read this book after I lost my
husband Edgar to suicide.
— Joan Rivers

I opened this book and said, ‘Where was this when I needed it?!’
— Judy Collins

Eric Marcus has much to teach us whether or not we have experienced the trauma of suicide in our personal lives.  Educators in Pre-K through college, school administrators, guidance counselors, pediatricians, social workers, and mental health professionals will all find this book to be an invaluable resource in the practice of their profession.
— Mary P. Lefkarites, Ph.D, Associate Professor,
Hunter College of the City University of New York

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NEWS

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has selected Why Suicide? for
the organization’s Surviving Suicide Loss Bibliography.

INTERVIEWS

Therese Borchard, who writes the “Beyond Blue” blog at BeliefNet.com,
interviews Eric about Why Suicide? on PsychCentral.com.  Also published in
BeliefNet’s “Your Peace of Mind” newsletter.

EVENTS

November 20, 2010:
Eric will moderate this year’s annual National Survivors of Suicide Day
suicide survivor panel discussion.

• Suicide in Middle Age:  An essay by Dan Fields, former editor in chief of Dr. Andrew Weil’s Self-Healing newsletter.
The Good Men Magazine, August 15, 2010

• Family History of Mental Illness:  Lisa Belkin visits with a Carnegie relative who has written a compelling book about her family’s legacy of pain.
New York Times, August 11, 2010

• The Suicide of a Friend:  Andrew Solomon writes an incredibly moving essay about the death of a college classmate.
Yale Alumni Magazine, July/August 2010

• Veterans:  Veterans turn to suicide hot line for help.
New York Times, July 31, 2010 (Article and video–the video moved me to tears.)

• Military Suicides:  Pentagon report places blame for high suicide rate.
New York Times, July 30, 2010

• Golden Gate Bridge:  Funding approved for design of suicide barrier.
New York Times, July 29, 2010

• Funding for Military Mental Health Care:   New York Times editorial in favor of legislation to provide funding for mental health care for all Army reservists in light of skyrocketing suicides and suicide attempts.  (Seems like a no-brainer, but clearly someone with no brain–or heart–thinks we shouldn’t be spending the money.)
New York Times, July 23, 2010

• Military Suicides:  Army reports record number of suicides for the month of June.
USA Today, July 15, 2010

•  A Brother’s Suicide:  ”Can I Just Tell You” Radio Commentary by Michel Martin.
NPR, “Maybe Someday Love Will Cure Despair,” May 24, 2010

• Military Suicides & Presidential Condolence Letters:  My letter to the editor of the New York Times.
New York Times, December 9, 2009

• Animal Suicide:  A scientific debate.
Time magazine, March 19, 2010