The legend of suicide is the first book by Alaskan born david vann ,the book had been round agents for a number of years before seeing the light of day ,thank goodness it did .the book itself is a novella and 5 short stories .Around the story of Roy and his father a failed dentist and fisherman ,the story is based partly on Vann ‘s own life .
the story of Roy and his father is a one of the wilderness ,despair ,divorce ,failure and not giving too much away the ultimate climax .the way the stories are structured is the novella tells the main story of Roy and his father .The shorter stories are like a deluxe dvd with those great extras that give depth and perspective to the main tale by describing the incidents leading to and during the main tale use different people as the narrates
Vann’s writing is vivid with the words floating of the page engulfing you in roys world .The details are painted well with a light hand as Colm Tobin says one detail is enough to set the scene .
“they went inside and he pulled out the coals with tongs he had brought for the purpose and laid them in the pan ,then set a small grate over them that fitted down into the pan and pour a large handful of alder chips on top “
from sukkwan island ,as roy and his father smoke fish together .
The cover is a clever design by dan funderburgh for penguin ,it has a clever detail which a first glance of the cover isn t obvious .the book came out this week on penguin
Winstonsdad's Blog 