If you were a filmmaker, and had the opportunity to make a film about a supposed great artist or “legend,” would you focus on that person’s last dying moments, when he or she is in a drugged out daze, or on what made that person noteworthy to begin with? I choose the latter, but after reading Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious by Alix Strauss, the book references a film made by Gus Van Sant, chronicling the “Last Days” of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain (actually, the character has a different name but anyone can see this is based on Cobain). In the trailer, the Cobain character wanders around, doped up, slurring and drooling in a dress, falling over in his depressed stupor. Ironically, the film is titled “Last Days” for this very reason.
And Strauss’ book is basically the book version of that film. In it she focuses on writers, painters, actors, musicians, and also “notorious” folk like Sigmund Freud and Adolf Hitler, all in their “Last Days.” All listed in this book have, in some way, killed themselves or attempted to kill themselves. So why write a book that focuses on these supposedly “exceptional” individuals (for reasons both good and bad) while they’re in their most pathetic state? Because the culture has this sick obsession with not only death, but suicidal death. To be fair, this book is not being marketed as anything “deep.” It is a pop cultural book that basically offers facts into these individuals’ last dying days, as well as their suicidal methods of choice. Death Becomes Them is a very fast and easy read, leaving the reader with merely encyclopedic details, rather than insights.
Although I admit to having learned facts I’d not known before, I’m not sure I can say I’m better off having learned them. The book is also larded with suicide “details” that to a depressed person, might read more like “tips,” as in how long does it take to die when a plastic bag is put over your head? (You don’t even have to tie it!) And what is the best way of slitting your wrists? Although one cannot blame a book as the source to a problem, Death Becomes Them is not a book for the sad or depressed. Or maybe it is, though I don’t recommend reading it if that is the case.
Article comments
1 - Alix Strauss
Hi Jessica - Thanks for taking the time to read my book. I did want to share a few notable authors that found DEATH BECOMES THEM to be both fascinating and well-written:
"Alix Strauss' book is dark, grisly - and completely fascinating. I almost felt guilty for so thoroughly enjoying this look at history's most tormented souls." - A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
"Every life is laid out with such humor, such style and heart, it's hard to imagine the dead themselves would not be thrilled to come back and read what the author had to say about them. Forget the bible - this is what I want to find in a hotel drawer at four in the morning. A truly unique, compelling and strangely life-affirming work of literary investigation. The perfect book to get you through the night."? -- Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight
"Strauss brilliantly exposes the devilry in the details and makes the profoundly moving, self-inflicted end-days of the greats a fascinating read." -- Michael Largo, author of Genius and Heroin