November of the soul : the enigma of suicide

by George Howe Colt

Paperback, 2006

Status

Available

Collection

Research

Publication

New York : Scribner, 2006.

Description

Written with the same graceful narrative voice that made his bestselling National Book Award finalist The Big House such a success, George Howe Colt's November of the Soul is a compassionate, compelling, thought-provoking, and exhaustive investigation into the subject of suicide. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews and a fascinating survey of current knowledge, Colt provides moving case studies to offer insight into all aspects of suicide -- its cultural history, the latest biological and psychological research, the possibilities of prevention, the complexities of the right-to-die movement, and the effects on suicide's survivors. Presented with deep compassion and humanity, November of the Soul is an invaluable contribution not only to our understanding of suicide but also of the human condition.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member worldsedge

Parts of this book were very well done, parts were dated and/or downright silly. The best section was the historical overview of suicide and the last portion of the book relating to the anguish of survivors.

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LibraryThing member meggyweg

This took me a very long time to read, in part because of its length and subject matter and in part because I owned a copy and had to give priority to books I'd borrowed from the library and had to give back. I was very impressed with it.

November of the Soul is a comprehensive study of suicide,

exploring it from psychological, sociological, medical, historical and legal angles and probably other angles I can't think of at the moment. In addition to being a very fine work of scholarship, with extensive notes and bibliography, it was very engagingly written. I felt like I actually knew Justin Spoonhour and all the other people Mr. Colt was writing about, and the chapters were very thought-provoking. I would recommend November of the Soul to any intelligent adult -- one need not be personally acquainted with suicide to appreciate its value.

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