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...Or Not to Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes
by Marc Etkind
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Riverhead Trade (1997-02-01)
ISBN: 1573225800
EAN: 9781573225809
Dewy Decimal #: 616.858445
Paperback: 114 pages
Edition: 1st Riverhead Trade Pbk. Ed
SKU: 080620006
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: This copy is in excellent condition. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. Pages are lightly sunned. No Dust Jacket. Clean Soft Cover with tiny scratches to bottom of front/back cover. Light shelf/edge wear. Very interesting copy, worth having at an affordable price. (L11-12)
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com
. . . Or Not to Be is described, by its own editor, as "pornography." It's also oddly fascinating, a collection of suicide notes by the famous, including Kurt Cobain, Vincent Van Gogh, Diane Arbus, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf. Also included are poignant last words from the utterly obscure, including an anonymous Siberian who duly noted that "the snow will cover my footsteps," and a man who wrote "Bow wow and good-bye, Pepper," to his dog. Of particular interest in the collection are suicide notes by Dorothy Parker, who survived, and Ken Kesey, who was pulling a prank on the feds. Etkind also offers much factual material in the annotations to the many selections.
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Customer Reviews
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Fascinating subject via a horrible author
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-05-07
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I uncovered my copy of "...or not to be" beneath some shirts on my floor and leafed through it again. What struck me the first time I read this years ago and again today was the sad fact that this fascinating subject landed in the hands of such a terrible author. How he got this published, I'll never know.
While the notes in this book are interesting by their nature, Marc Etkind's commentary displays the depth of his ignorance of suicide as well as his disdain for it. In no way does this book touch upon the psychological, philosophical complexity of suicide. His interpretations, at best, are amateurish and void of meaning. At its worst, they are condescending and cruel. Here is the last sentence of the introduction to the book, written by Etkind -
"The following collection will allow the reader to decide just how good a correspondent the suicide note-writer really is."
Um, Mr. Etkind? This isn't a book about correspondence or letter writing 101. How far off base can this guy get? In the small biography about Etkind at the end of the book, it reads, "Marc Etkind has probably read more suicide notes than anyone else. This he does for enjoyment." (Then it talks about what he does for a living) If that doesn't tell you how cavalier his approach is to suicide, I don't know what will.
Clearly, the value of this book is the notes themselves. I regret this book wasn't written by someone who actually has an interest in suicide and suicide notes rather than childish enjoyment. It could have been very informative; to get a unique view into the minds of those who left by their own hand. Even if it had been purely for entertainment, lacking serious overtones, that could have worked too.
Marc Etkind is neither serious nor entertaining. He didn't bother to mask his contempt, bias or lack of understanding about suicide and it shows. Two stars. Both for the rare and interesting subject matter. As for Marc Etkind? His enjoyment in collecting these notes is anything but enjoyable for the reader. Read the notes and the backstories, they are compelling. Skip the rest.
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Interesting, but certainly not to die for
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-08-06
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I expected better. A very thin book with very little space devoted to actual suicide notes. The introduction was written by someone who doesn't really seem to understand the suicidal mindset. There were a couple pretty interesting chapters, such as the golden gate bridge jumpers, but I'm glad I interlibrary loaned the book rather than buying it. Many of the notes are very old, like 1900-1920. One intresting quote which I will paraphrase here says that mentally healthy comfortable people don't want to write and that to want to write is a sign of mental problems. It really says something about me. I get excited just seeing a fresh notebook.
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"Or Not to Be" a.k.a. "Suicide is for Idiots" by Mark Etkind
Rating (2)
Date: 2006-01-22
14 out of 19 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you are interested in a book of suicide notes, you obviously have your reasons. And this is one of the few books that deals with such a controversial subject in such a blunt manner. But don't let the title fool you; this is not merely a collection of suicide notes. It's heavily peppered with Mr. Etkind's opinionated, self-righteous preaching.
This wears on the reader's nerves quickly. At times Etkind ridicules suicide notes for being inadequate or incoherent. I quote (from page 1): "If someone could think clearly enough to leave a cogent note, that person would probably be able to recognize that suicide was a bad idea."
I'm sure we would all love to be spared the sophomoric, non-scientific statements and instead be allowed to form our own opinions based on what the book advertises: "a collection of suicide notes" (not "Etkind's beliefs on suicide"). Perhaps this book is ideal for someone who is desperately trying to escape the guilt of a loved one's suicide. It paints all suicidal people as confused, selfish souls who are 100% to blame for their tragic ends. How convenient that philosophy is for those left living.
My technical criticism of the book is this: the book is fragmented and insufficient. Full names are rarely given, thus preventing the reader from researching matters further. The suicide notes are frequently abbreviated or condensed. In the "Acknowledgements" section, we learn that Etkind merely snipped and pasted from other books. So what we have here is the Cliff's Notes version, interesting if you have an hour to kill on the subway or in a doctor's office but little more than that. Whatever you do, don't pay $53 for this 114-page paperback book. I found it for $10, and even that is a stretch.
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Exactly what it says it is
Rating  (4)
Date: 2003-12-11
4 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is a great reference for those interested in suicide notes. Etkind, however, has too many unqualified comments and some of the notes could be found on the internet anyway.
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Etkind Shies from Analysis
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-11-14
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Etkind's collection of suicide notes is a cautious creature, timid to delve too deeply into the situations or mindsets surrounding the tragic losses it records. It strikes me as being far too concerned with moralizing and less involved in analyzing-- I am far more interested in why, psychologically, the notes have been written at all, and far less in why the author feels the writer is wrong to have acted out suicidal impulses.I'm no proponent of suicide, but by merely skirting the difficult issues involved, and only stating the flaws in the writers' reasoning, Etkind fails to create an image of the minds at work behind them. This is what makes the book 'pornagraphy,' as the forward glibly states. It would not be so if it treated its subjects with more introspection. The question of 'why'-- the question of how these people thought and felt, is a far more interesting subject than merely the text of the notes themselves, and at the same time is the very thing Etkind seems unwilling to explore. There is an unreasoned trepidation here, that by exploring those thoughts he may somehow condone them.
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