The qualifications:
The book must advance and add to the current conversation around psychology and mental health.
The book has to be readable, relatable, connected and bubbling with new ideas.
I have to love it.
Pub Date: Oct 12, 2021
Publisher: Norton
144 pages / $20 - $25 (depending on where you buy it)
A searing and brave memoir that offers a new understanding of suicide as a distinct mental illness.
Donald Antrim is the author of three novels, including Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, and a memoir, The Afterlife. He has received awards from the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
As the sun lowered in the sky one Friday afternoon in April 2006, acclaimed author Donald Antrim found himself on the roof of his Brooklyn apartment building, afraid for his life. In this moving memoir, Antrim vividly recounts what led him to the roof and what happened after he came back down: two hospitalizations, weeks of fruitless clinical trials, the terror of submitting to ECT―and the saving call from David Foster Wallace that convinced him to try it―as well as years of fitful recovery and setback.
One Friday in April reframes suicide―whether in thought or action―as an illness in its own right, a unique consequence of trauma and personal isolation, rather than the choice of a depressed person. A necessary companion to William Styron’s classic Darkness Visible, this profound, insightful work sheds light on the tragedy and mystery of suicide, offering solace that may save lives.
original artwork of Donald Antrim by Edwina White
PROFILES
THE NEW YORKER, a personal history
What are you reading, or what have you read recently, that you think I should consider for this monthly feature? Tell me in the comments!
Until Wednesday, I remain...
Amanda Stern
