Christopher (Kit) Lukas’s mother committed suicide when he was a boy. He and his brother, Tony, were not told how she died. No one spoke of t...
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Sep 25, 2011
Enrique
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Stephen King once wrote that suicide “slithers like a snake off the tongue.” Say the word aloud and hear its venomous hiss. In his 1938 masterwork on the subject, “Man Against Himself,” Karl Menninger spoke of suicide’s stigma in polite society, “So great is the taboo on suicide that some people will not say the word…a taboo related to strongly repressed emotions. People do not like to think seriously and factually about suicide”. Should Menninger’s comments describe your perspective on this
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Feb 17, 2009
Leslie
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Home sick from work and I read this book today. It's really good, very sad, very articulate. Lukas begins the books with an early scene between his brother and himself when they were very young--4 and 6, I think, then goes to being told his brother killed himself. Next he takes us on a journey through his family history--his grandparents, his parents, especially his mother's early life, his parent's marriage, his brother's birth, his own, her suicide and them growing up without a mother, and
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Apr 22, 2009
Christina
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I picked this up from the "new nonfiction" section of the library and thought it looked interesting. The author's family has a history of mental illness and suicide. His mother committed suicide when he was just a child and it had a profound effect on him. The book was interesting and a good reminder of how much childhood experiences affect the psyche of an adult. However, by the end, I got really tired of the constant psycho-analysis by the author; indeed, when I read that he as a
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Aug 12, 2009
Judith
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This is a well-written memoir and very interesting, but it is so sad that I cannot recommend it to anyone. Everyone in the author's family was attractive and successful and they all eventually committed suicide due to depression. To add insult to injury, the author's beloved wife died just before the book was published. Surely there is a lesson to be learned here, but it's too late for the members of his family and I feel like I am now in mourning for people I didn't even know. I just hope t
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Sep 29, 2008
Monie
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Late one night Christopher (Kit) Lukas received a phone call with news that his brother, the gifted journalist J. Anthony Lukas, had committed suicide. Tragically their mother also committed suicide when they were young boys. Kit and his brother were never told how she died and no one spoke of the family’s history of depression and bipolar disorder. The legacy of guilt and grief haunted Kit and Tony throughout their lives.
Despite both brothers achieving remarkable success, Tony as a More...
Despite both brothers achieving remarkable success, Tony as a More...
Feb 20, 2010
Marie
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I loved the Pulitzer Prize winning book COMMON GROUND by Anthony Lukas, and so picked up this book written by his brother, trying to come to terms with Anthony's suicide in mid-life. Turns out there is a lot of suicide in this family and kudos to Christopher Lukas for writing it out - double interesting as a man writing in his 70's who had to grapple with all of this when the era he grew up in didn't have as many options to understand or process his kinds of loss.
Jul 01, 2009
Vashti
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This book was written in a flat, trite manner. I've known more "sane" people who have had much worse experiences than how he "remebers he and his brothers lives. Suicide is HELL and I have empathy for the man but he does not convey much emotion or drama or show the HELL of what living with a mental illness is like. Of course he came from a rich family so his mother was in a "sanitorium". He was spared the gory details! Anyone
Jan 02, 2009
Priya
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A very interesting read for now. Let see how it develops...
Well, i'm a little conflicted abt. the book.Its a memoir abt. "tough childhood" and not having the right diagnosis at the right time.Yes, genes play a role too and thats very evident, but, i think in his case, Family played a great role in the making and breaking of the two brothers.
Well, i'm a little conflicted abt. the book.Its a memoir abt. "tough childhood" and not having the right diagnosis at the right time.Yes, genes play a role too and thats very evident, but, i think in his case, Family played a great role in the making and breaking of the two brothers.
Jan 06, 2009
Kathleen
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This was a very moving and well written book. There is such sadness in the fact that many, many families suffered before the medical community was equipped to diagnose and treat depression and, more specifically, bipolar disorder. I would highly recommend this book.
May 01, 2009
Margaret
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wow. enormously sad and depressing but a beautiful coming-of-age story that protrays a family's struggles with depression and bipolar disorder. heavy and melancholy, but well worth it.
Oct 12, 2008
Garryvivianne
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Kind of sad, mother commits suicide & the family only tell Kit & his brother that the mother was sick & died. They only find out about the suicide much later in life. The father is with them on & off, the over-bearing grandmother wants to be there all the time & they never feel like people really want them. The younger brother Kit is the author of this memoir. He always felt abandoned by first his mother then his father & somehow by his older brother whom he always looked up to. The "b
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Jan 22, 2009
Dawn
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An excellent memoir of how the echoes of suicide reverberate through a family for a long time and how no one escapes them.
Jul 18, 2010
Koz
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I would give it a 2.5 if I could. I had a hard time with the wrier's voice/style.
I thought the suicide-related content/info was devastating and incredible. And the "envoi" was heartbreaking.
I thought the suicide-related content/info was devastating and incredible. And the "envoi" was heartbreaking.
Apr 25, 2011
Sarah
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One of the most unemotional memoirs I have ever read. It's an interesting history of a family, but I have a really hard time comprehending that this was really his life, that it was his mother and brother he's discussing. He says, when finding out about his brother's suicide, "I scream and throw the undropped shoe at the far wall." I cannot fathom that the person who wrote this book actually had that response.
Jun 15, 2009
Lisa
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This book was a good, albeit somber read. It details the author's experience dealing with the fallout from depression in his immediate and extended family, and how he has managed to overcome the seeds of suicide that are planted in his genes.
Jan 25, 2009
Cindy
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It's an interesting and at times poignant account of the author's struggles to understand his brother's suicide and the family history that drove him to it.
Oct 20, 2008
Susan
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My kind of book. I wish it were longer and even more in depth. The pain that comes from a legacy of not talking about mental illness.
Oct 02, 2008
April
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