Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #588116 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-21
• Released on: 2006-02-21
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.51" h x 6.32" w x 9.28" l, 1.50 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The U.S. purportedly has at least 80 suicides per day, with many times that number in failed attempts. Life staffer Colt attributes the alarming rise in adolescent suicides to multiple factors including drugs, loneliness, divorce, rootlessness, increased competition and the threat of global suicide hanging over us all. The most comprehensive, illuminating look at suicide to date, this monumental survey begins with an account of "suicide clusters" that shook Plano, Texas in 1983 and a tri-county area around New York City in 1984. Poignant case histories underscore the fact that "even to trained suicidologists, clues are often recognizable only in retrospect." Surveying the history of suicide from ancient Egypt to U.S. inner cities, Colt demonstrates that the way a culture judges suicide depends largely on that culture's view of death. After discussing the moral and legal issues raised by right-to-die advocates, he explores contemporary suicide prevention, including treatment centers, hot lines, survivor groups and unprecedented classroom efforts to educate students about suicide.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Written by a writer for Life magazine, this well-researched book covers all aspects of suicide, including its social, cultural, and legal history; the biological and psychological research available; attempts at prevention; the right-to-die movement; and the effects on survivors. Interspersing interviews with factual information, the author provides the reader with a deeper understanding of the study of suicide, and points out that for some people suicide may be the only choice. Some of the stories are depressing, but this book will probably be comforting to survivors who are trying to make sense of why their loved ones succumbed to this dreaded persuasion. Recommended for most libraries.
- Lucy Patrick, Florida State Univ. Lib., Tallahassee
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Imagine a book about a forbidden subject at once so matter-of-fact and thorough that it could be the perfect catalog and as sure-footed and moving as a good novel. This is what George Howe Colt has given us."

-- Boston Globe

"Rigorous, wide-ranging, informed, and humane...Provides much sorely needed wisdom; it will not arrest the crisis, but it could save some lives."

-- Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

"An utterly fascinating, admirably well-written, and sad book...The literature on the subject -- and the survivors -- are greatly enriched by his evocative treatment of it."

-- The New York Times Book Review