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108th out of 258 books
—
573 voters
The Suicide Shop
by
Jean Teulé
Has your life been a failure? Let's make your death a success With the twenty-first century just a distant memory and the world in environmental chaos, many people have lost the will to live. And business is brisk at The Suicide Shop. Run by the Tuvache family for generations, the shop offers an amazing variety of ways to end it all, with something to fit every budget. The...more
Paperback, 169 pages
Published
July 2nd 2008
by Gallic Books
(first published January 1st 2006)
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Nov 01, 2009
Conta-me Histórias
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
literatura-estrangeira
"A loja dos suicídios " é um romance escrito por Jean Teulé. É uma comédia futurista, carregada de humor negro.
A sua vida foi um fracasso? Connosco, a sua morte será um sucesso! Este é o lema da Casa Tuvache. A casa Tuvache, ou melhor A Loja dos Suicídios, "é uma lojinha onde nunca entra um raio de Sol". Nesta loja, os potenciais suicidas poderão encontrar todo um manancial para levarem àvante os seus intentos - cordas, pistolas, facas, venenos, quimonos e espadas para a prática do hara-kiri. É...more
A sua vida foi um fracasso? Connosco, a sua morte será um sucesso! Este é o lema da Casa Tuvache. A casa Tuvache, ou melhor A Loja dos Suicídios, "é uma lojinha onde nunca entra um raio de Sol". Nesta loja, os potenciais suicidas poderão encontrar todo um manancial para levarem àvante os seus intentos - cordas, pistolas, facas, venenos, quimonos e espadas para a prática do hara-kiri. É...more
Feb 24, 2011
Colin Miller
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Colin by:
Author Craig Wallwork
Shelves:
short-stories-novellas
Most black comedies follow seedy individuals. Often times, the protagonist will have an epiphany (catalyzed by falling in love, discovering family and/or an increasing disenchantment with their seedy behavior) and will begin to change, even if the world they’ve lived in for so long won’t let them. Jean Teule’s The Suicide Shop, however, is a unique and delightful take on black comedy; dropping a hopeful individual into a world gone sour.
At the end of the twenty-first century, the world is in in...more
At the end of the twenty-first century, the world is in in...more
The Suicide Shop by Jean Teule and published by Gallic Books. I first read about it on Scott Pack's blog. Consumed with jealousy over the cleverness of the title, I jumped at the opportunity to review it, hoping to find it was nothing more than a clever title.
It arrived on my doorstep as a spiral bound manuscript. I spent several Aspie moments delighting over how it opened out flat without the usual struggle to break the spine of the book...before I forced myself to stop digressing and got on wi...more
It arrived on my doorstep as a spiral bound manuscript. I spent several Aspie moments delighting over how it opened out flat without the usual struggle to break the spine of the book...before I forced myself to stop digressing and got on wi...more
"A sua vida foi um fracasso? Connosco, a sua morte será um sucesso!". Este é o slogan da Loja dos Suícidios dos Tuvache, uma loja que vende toda a parafrenália necessária para garantir que se morre. Quem entra na loja pode encontrar cordas para enforcamento, pistolas descartáveis e balas, venenos de todo o género, diversos tipos de facas e objectos cortantes e até o material necessário para cometer um hara-kiri tradicional. A família Tuvache tem um grande problema, o filho mais novo, Alan. Ao co...more
Jean Teule has created a sublime and satirical look at the dynamics of family life set against the backcloth of mortality. Balancing precariously on the precipice of life, the desperate and lonely folk of Teule’s future world seek a means to end their pathetic lives, and find it within a small shop aptly titled, The Suicide shop. Having been in the Tuvache family for generations, morose and embittered father Mishima, and his dutiful and equally morbid wife Lucrece, have forged a business designe...more
3 likes · like · see review
view all 5 comments
The Tuvaches, a sort of working class Addams Family, operate The Suicide Shop--a shop where anyone can purchase the equipment and/or training required to off themselves (though children can only purchase sweets that have a 50% chance of killing them).
The story is set some time after North America has been laid to waste by the Big One--but for the most part it could pass as contemporary, with the odd bit of future tech: holographic greeting cards; a solution that turn one's kiss poisonous to othe...more
The story is set some time after North America has been laid to waste by the Big One--but for the most part it could pass as contemporary, with the odd bit of future tech: holographic greeting cards; a solution that turn one's kiss poisonous to othe...more
Short Version of the Review
4 stars out of 5 for:
- honest-to-goodness narrative
- effective and efficient and, most importantly, entertaining writing
- interesting spin on showing our way of thinking
- consistently amusing and quirky characters
(-1) star for:
- lacking impact and gravity in moments that should have been poignant
- slight predictability
- that goddamn ending
Long Version of the Review
I read the English translation of the book.
The world is hopeless, and its inhabitants even more. No wond...more
4 stars out of 5 for:
- honest-to-goodness narrative
- effective and efficient and, most importantly, entertaining writing
- interesting spin on showing our way of thinking
- consistently amusing and quirky characters
(-1) star for:
- lacking impact and gravity in moments that should have been poignant
- slight predictability
- that goddamn ending
Long Version of the Review
I read the English translation of the book.
The world is hopeless, and its inhabitants even more. No wond...more
Algures, num futuro pós-apocalíptico, podemos encontrar os Tuvache - mãe, pai e três filhos, cujo negócio de família garante as formas mais originais de cometer suicídio! E é no meio deste mórbido conjunto de personagens, de carácter sombrio e carregado de negativismo que encontramos Alan, a ovelha negra da família, uma criança que, para vergonha e desespero da parentela, pula, canta, dança e, imagine-se, sorri.
Jean Teulé oferece-nos uma narrativa simples cheia de pormenores vividamente descrito...more
Jean Teulé oferece-nos uma narrativa simples cheia de pormenores vividamente descrito...more
4 likes · like · see review
Tinha elevadas expectativas em relação a este livro e há muito que o queria ler, principalmente pela curiosidade que me despertou a frase "com uma ambiência digna de um filme de Tim Burton". Gosto de todo o imaginário de Tim Burton, no cinema e não só. Há uns anos tive a oportunidade de ler "A Morte Melancólica do Rapaz Ostra e Outras Histórias" e adorei. Daí talvez ter associado o tipo de humor negro de Tim Burton ao que esperaria deste livro.
A família Tuvache é singular, a sua loja, no mínimo,...more
A família Tuvache é singular, a sua loja, no mínimo,...more
The Suicide Shop is a little funny book about the meaning of life. Set in a dystopian future, in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by depressed weather-watchers, possibly in the Netherlands (although the details about Delft could set it in the Lowlands), this book follows a few years of the life of the Tuvache family.
The Tuvaches, mother Lucrece and father Mishima, children Vincent (named after Van Gogh), Marilyn (named after the 1950s Monroe), and Alan (named after Turing, the computer scient...more
The Tuvaches, mother Lucrece and father Mishima, children Vincent (named after Van Gogh), Marilyn (named after the 1950s Monroe), and Alan (named after Turing, the computer scient...more
This one of the most funny books I have read in a very long time. Full of dark wit, so rich and morbid that choosing death in this town could almost be enjoyable.
Step up folks!!!!
Has life been a bit of a let down?
Has optimism ,and a sunny demeanor been vacant from your life for some time?
You need "The Suicide Shop" , here is a morbid candy-shop for those who wish to be dead .
The shop is run by the Tuvache family ,and they run it well . They are always coming up with new and more imaginative way...more
Step up folks!!!!
Has life been a bit of a let down?
Has optimism ,and a sunny demeanor been vacant from your life for some time?
You need "The Suicide Shop" , here is a morbid candy-shop for those who wish to be dead .
The shop is run by the Tuvache family ,and they run it well . They are always coming up with new and more imaginative way...more
2 likes · like · see review
What a wonderfully bizarre book! A slim quick read, but totally gripping from beginning to end (no pun intended...)
A translated French novel (only the French could have written this - reminded me of the bleak comedy of the film 'Le Delicatessen'). Set in the future after a calamity which transformed the outlook of the world to despair, the Tuvache family run The Suicide Shop. Not allowed to kill anyone directly they offer everything that is needed, often marvellously creatively, to take one's li...more
A translated French novel (only the French could have written this - reminded me of the bleak comedy of the film 'Le Delicatessen'). Set in the future after a calamity which transformed the outlook of the world to despair, the Tuvache family run The Suicide Shop. Not allowed to kill anyone directly they offer everything that is needed, often marvellously creatively, to take one's li...more
J'aurais aimé mettre deux notes à ce livre : une très bonne pour l'humour noir et l'originalité, et l'autre vraiment moins bonne pour la fin prévisible et l'aspect répétitif.
Tout d'abord, j'ai adoré rentrer dans ce livre délicieusement confie à l'humour noir et aromatisé avec un zeste de tabou. Le magasin des suicides propose depuis plusieurs générations, tout ce qu'il faut pour réussir son suicide. "Vous avez raté votre vie ? Avec nous vous allez réussir votre mort" est le credo de la boutique...more
Tout d'abord, j'ai adoré rentrer dans ce livre délicieusement confie à l'humour noir et aromatisé avec un zeste de tabou. Le magasin des suicides propose depuis plusieurs générations, tout ce qu'il faut pour réussir son suicide. "Vous avez raté votre vie ? Avec nous vous allez réussir votre mort" est le credo de la boutique...more
1 like · like · see review
Chcete se pořádně zasmát? Odprostit se od negativismu všude kolem sebe? Tak tohle je ta pravá kniha. Možná trochu černý humor, ale je to odpočinkové čtení na hodinku volného času. A o čem to celé vlastně je? Alan je úžasné roztomiloučké dítě, plavé kudrlinky vlasů se vznáší kolem obličejíčku, který se ustavičně usmívá. Co víc si přát, že? V Neužilových se smích, veselí a pozitivní myšlení netrpí. Proč by taky mělo, když rodinný krám se jmenuje „Potřeby pro sebevrahy“.
Na těchto několika málo stra...more
Na těchto několika málo stra...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
El libro comienza bien, integrado por capítulos muy cortos nos presenta a una familia de cinco que lleva una tienda de artículos para suicidas.
En un futuro apocalíptico que no tiene mucha mas importancia que la de servir de marco, la historia se lleva a cabo dentro de la tienda, en donde se presentan ideas novedosas para acelerar el último viaje a una humanidad hundida en una depresión general.
En un mundo en donde el continente americano se ha convertido en un desierto sin vida, donde la lluvia...more
En un futuro apocalíptico que no tiene mucha mas importancia que la de servir de marco, la historia se lleva a cabo dentro de la tienda, en donde se presentan ideas novedosas para acelerar el último viaje a una humanidad hundida en una depresión general.
En un mundo en donde el continente americano se ha convertido en un desierto sin vida, donde la lluvia...more
It's such a lovely black comedy. I totally love the plot of this book, about how citizens of this city lost the taste of life and tried to committed suicide. Consequently, there's a shop call The Suicide Shop, run by this family, that sell thing to make your suicide success. I totally love the new sensational plot of this book. BUT it wasn't what I've expected at all. The story is too slow, too simple, and too humdrum. Also the ending is what I don't understand, and I don't like the ending. I ha...more
В едно бъдещо, дистопично общество, в което самоубийството се превръща в единствения възможен, дори нормален изход от проблемите, властва мракът и отчаянието:
Мишима е повдигнал крайчеца на пердето и наблюдава слънцето, което се дави в кръвта си, и живота по балконите на отсрещните блокове, който се отронва на философски пластове. Бъдещето разкрива отблъскващата си рана, а долу се разпиляват хората и мечтите им......more
… окъпан в светлината на залеза, който се отразява в очите му, се чувства отчаян,
Bienvenue au magasin des suicides, où l'on vous dit "adieu" et non pas "aurevoir" quand vous partez, car on sait que vous ne reviendrez pas! Les propriétaires de la boutique, pessimistes au possible, font en sorte que leurs enfants soient comme eux, mais Alan, le petit dernier, est un bébé souriant et devient le garçon le plus optimiste de ce monde étrange.
Humour noir, très noir pour ce livre, qui m'a bien amusée, et que j'ai dévoré. A lire si vous avez envie de vous détendre, ou de vous changer...more
Humour noir, très noir pour ce livre, qui m'a bien amusée, et que j'ai dévoré. A lire si vous avez envie de vous détendre, ou de vous changer...more
In a future world made bleak by pollution, terrorist attacks, and ecological disasters, suicide is the accepted way to escape it all. Madame and Monsieur Touvache run the Suicide Shop, to aid you in your escape: “HAS YOUR LIFE BEEN A FAILURE? LET’S MAKE YOUR DEATH A SUCCESS!”
I have mixed feelings about this book, hence the 3-star rating. The story is painted with broad strokes of dark, macabre humor, but underneath there is sadness and irony, too. The Tuvaches have three children. The oldest, V...more
I have mixed feelings about this book, hence the 3-star rating. The story is painted with broad strokes of dark, macabre humor, but underneath there is sadness and irony, too. The Tuvaches have three children. The oldest, V...more
3 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Without a doubt, this is the weirdest book I have ever read. The Tuvache family reminded me very much of the Addams Family, or even the family who parodied them, the Munsters. Their idea of "normal" is very different from most. They live in a dark world, many years in the future, when it rains sulphuric acid and suicide is not only common, but accepted. The Tuvache family runs The Suicide Shop, where they sell paraphanalia to patrons who want to end their lives. They sell anything from poisons t...more
A satisfying short read, ideally this book is a refreshing experience after reading something heavy and serious (as I did (The Grapes of Wrath)). I wish their was more detail about the world the characters inhabited, it was as if I were looking through a dusty window knowing their was much more going on, however only seeing a small part of it.
It is somewhat heterodox to demand more detail from something designed to be easy and light so I don't hold this against the book. The story was not entire...more
It is somewhat heterodox to demand more detail from something designed to be easy and light so I don't hold this against the book. The story was not entire...more
Excellent roman. Le magasin des suicides est un magasin ou l'on ne vient qu'une fois. Le slogan: "vous avez raté votre vie, avec nous, vous réussirez votre mort." C'est la vie d'une famille qui, depuis deux générations, fournit les outils, armes pour se suicider et ne pas se rater. Poisons, harakiri, cordes, demandez et on vous vendra. Humour noir façon famille Adams. Jusqu'à l'arrivée du petit dernier, la famille se traîne dans le lugubre du suicide. Mais voilà, l'arrivée de cet enfant qui voit...more
May 13, 2013
Maria Carmo
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Everyone.
Shelves:
childhood-and-youth-books,
philisophical-humor
This is a very funny book. Even though it is supposed to be "black humor" fortunately for me it has none of the "heaviness" that "dark books" usually have... except maybe at the very end? I will not spoil that for you!
This book has another amazing characteristic: it seems to be written for the stage of the movies: I sort of read it as I would a script or a guide of "how to act out" the story in the book. It is very graphic and one feels transported into the shop, the mysterious atmosphere of the...more
This book has another amazing characteristic: it seems to be written for the stage of the movies: I sort of read it as I would a script or a guide of "how to act out" the story in the book. It is very graphic and one feels transported into the shop, the mysterious atmosphere of the...more
Im afraid to say Im a bit ignorant of french literature and wary of books in translation but I picked it up as Im a sucker for a dark comedy, and Im so glad I did.
This book is a really quick read partly due to its simplistic language and narrative,which makes it seem by the end anyway like a fable.
The subject matter sounds dark, because in part it is, but this novel is warm and funny. Although before you read don't get too excited, on the front cover of my edition it says 'You will die laughing...more
This book is a really quick read partly due to its simplistic language and narrative,which makes it seem by the end anyway like a fable.
The subject matter sounds dark, because in part it is, but this novel is warm and funny. Although before you read don't get too excited, on the front cover of my edition it says 'You will die laughing...more
Un peu niais, des fois sympathiquement cru, pas franchement drôle, chacun des protagonistes est un peu trop prévisible, aucun d'eux n'est nuancé, et le retournement de situation, prévisible depuis la dixième page, n'est pas vraiment crédible. L'univers qu'on découvre par petites touches, apporte un peu de curiosité, et laisse attendre une belle chute à la fin qui finalement n'est pas à la hauteur de ce qu'on pourrait attendre. Ce à quoi s'ajoutent quelques fautes grammaticales un peu énervantes,...more
L'idea di una famiglia che gestisce un negozio specializzato in "generi di suicidio" dai cappi per impiccagione preparati a mano dal padre partendo dalla canapa grezza (perché i prodotti industrali sono poco affidabili), ai veleni preparati dalla madre (indossando la maschera antigas, ed esponendo sulla lavagna, anziché il menu del giorno, il veleno del giorno) alle mele avvelenate in ricordo di Alan Turing... idee carine, ma alla lunga odorano un po' troppo di "Famiglia Addams" e di già visto....more
I needed something not as emotionally consuming. What better book to read next than a French comedy about a suicide shop? Because that’s how I roll, kids. It’s short, simple, with a delightful premise, and a charming cast of characters—the Tuvache family who’s owned The Suicide Shop for generations, all of them named after key suicides; and the black sheep of the family, all sunny and blonde, greeting clients “See you soon,” instead of “Goodbye forever.” Ah, and all the people that want to die....more
This is a facinating book about an optimist born into a family of pesimists, which makes a living of their habit. It takes place in the near future, where everybody seems to be convinced to live in the worst of all worlds, with suicide as a generally accepted way out. This situation changes gradually during the story to a more and more optimistic attitude of the whole familiy and possibly the rest of the society. It is philospical book that reminded me on to look at the bright side of life, not...more
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Jean Teulé est un romancier français, qui a également pratiqué la bande dessinée, le cinéma et la télévision.
Auteur de bande dessinée dans un premier temps, il a débuté à la télévision dans L'assiette anglaise de Bernard Rapp ou Nulle part ailleurs sur Canal+.
Homme de télévision, scénariste, comédien, cinéaste, il est avant tout écrivain. Ayant abandonné toute autre activité, il se consacre désorm...more
More about Jean Teulé...
Auteur de bande dessinée dans un premier temps, il a débuté à la télévision dans L'assiette anglaise de Bernard Rapp ou Nulle part ailleurs sur Canal+.
Homme de télévision, scénariste, comédien, cinéaste, il est avant tout écrivain. Ayant abandonné toute autre activité, il se consacre désorm...more
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“HAS YOUR LIFE BEEN A FAILURE? LET’S MAKE YOUR DEATH A SUCCESS!”
—
10 people liked it
“Alan! How many more times do I have to tell you? We do not say “see you soon” to customers when they leave our shop. We say “goodbye”, because they won’t be coming back, ever. When will you get that into your thick head?”
—
6 people liked it
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