In the Wake of Suicide : Stories of the People Left Behind

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Summary: An touching collection of the stories of survivors.
Review: An excellent read for health care professionals, survivors of suicide and anyone seeking stories of human strength, Victoria Alexander offers a well organized collection of narratives from survivors of suicide. Raw in it's honesty, it offers hope of a future to the recently bereaved and a reference point for professionals and laypeople caring for those left behind. A survivor myself, it allowed me to address issues I had burried years earlier. A decade of collecting these touching, sometimes painful stories has allowed insight into a suffering that shame so often causes us to conceal.

Rating:
Summary: a bit scattered
Review: I thought the book was not well organized and also a bit dated.
Carla Fine's book is better.

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Summary: Words I Never Thought to Speak:..Life..in Wake of suicide
Review: Of all the many books on suicide I've read through the years, this book rates highest on my list of books that are helpful in terms of the understanding it provides to survivors of suicide, including both the legacy and the different ways we process and come to terms with a suicide. What I spent years trying to understand in myself, my family members, and other suicide survivors, I found on the pages of this well-written and organized book. Time and again while reading, I would say aloud with some excitement: "That's WHY!" or "Exactly!" or "I wish I'd written that!" In addition, I couldn't resist sharing some of the passages and/or the insights I'd gained to others who were either struggling with the legacy suicide leaves behind or were contemplating suicide themselves. This book clearly shows that suicide leaves its own distinct fingerprints on the hearts and lives of its survivors. I wish I'd discovered the book long ago. Kudos to Victoria Alexander!

Rating:
Summary: An touching collection of the stories of survivors.
Review: Victoria Alexander brings her own experiences in life into this book that describes the isolation, confusion, desperation, anger, lack thereof of any emotion...once someone close to you takes their own life. For once I have found a book that is not purely engorged in its academic statistics. I applaud Ms. Alexander for seeing the truth of the terror. I am a survivor of suicide, and this book proves a great comfort in knowing that I am not the only one. I pray that we rid ourselves of the stigma. Interviews in this volume range from every corner of the nation, be it a son, wife, husband, daughter, mother, father, or anyone close who has died by their own hand.

Thank you Ms. Alexander.

Molly Leach Boise, ID