Stars Need Counting: Essays on Suicide

by Concetta Principe

Stars Need Counting by Concetta Principe meditates on questions of suicide in the mode of A. Alvarez, when he says, in A Savage God, that there are no answers to these questions, because suicide is a “closed world” – so closed that it's not our place to judge or cast shame. These essays explore the quality of what is closed about this world, bring it close enough to scrape the shame off the act, and for both those who have passed and those who survive, offer peace.

Genres: Essays

162 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 2021

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stars Need Counting – Essays on Suicide explores suicide through the lenses of politics, history, psychology, literature, popular culture, mythology, philosophy and religion. Principe weaves autobiographical details of suicidal ideation, depression, cutting, anorexia, and career within the narrative of the book, giving the work a personal and relatable resonance. The book offers a combination of intellectual rigor in its careful and meticulous research, while also being wide-ranging and fascinating. Principe takes the often taboo and often unspoken subject of suicide and treats it with objectivity and care. She doesn’t offer easy and simplistic answers but raises important questions about how those who attempt or succeed in killing themselves are seen and treated in society. The book addresses 9/11’s pilots and those who fell from the burning buildings, along with soldiers who fought in Afghanistan, Antigone, Christ, Sylvia Plath and Romeo and Juliette, among others. Principe doesn’t steer clear from investigating what troubles her because “that trouble is meaningful. “Stars Need Counting is poetic and clear, thoughtful and fair. A book that should be in everyone’s library.

Concetta will be a guest on the Small Machine talks at the end of September, 2021. Visit SmallMachineTalks.com to listen to the episode

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️
The preface of this book made me very excited to begin reading, because it mentions coming at a very difficult subject with compassion and from many different view points. I enjoyed reading about different case studies from political, sociological, or more emotional lenses. However, I feel that these essays didn’t have enough background or research support to feel like essays. They were more so musings than essays. Also it’s one thing to ask questions and look at a topic from multiple viewpoints but at points, so many different options are explored for a case study/essay that the direction is lost.
*spoilers coming up* I will say that when she is musing about the firefighters on 9/11 dying by suicide because they were willing going to their death was too much of a stretch to me, and seemed like she was reaching to find something in that story that wasn’t there.
Overall I just didn’t enjoy this book and it was not because of the difficult subject matter or because her opinions might have been new or unique. I just found it lacked substance and did not leave me with any lasting thoughts or insights.