Suicide cannot be read as simply another novel--it is, in a sense,
the author's own oblique, public suicide note, a unique meditation on
this most extreme of refusals.
Presenting itself as an investigation into the suicide of a close
friend--perhaps real, perhaps fictional--more than twenty years earlier,
Levé gives us, little by little, a striking portrait of a man, with all
his talents and flaws, who chose to reject his life, and all the people
who loved him, in favor of oblivion. Gradually, through Levé's casually
obsessive, pointillist, beautiful ruminations, we come to know a stoic,
sensible, thoughtful man who bears more than a slight psychological
resemblance to Levé himself. But Suicide is more than just a
compendium of memories of an old friend; it is a near-exhaustive catalog
of the ramifications and effects of the act of suicide, and a unique and
melancholy farewell to life.