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    Ichthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide
    Ichthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide
    Ichthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide
    Ebook24 pages15 minutes

    Ichthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide

    By David Vann

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In semiautobiographical stories set largely in David Vann's native Alaska, Legend of a Suicide follows Roy Fenn from his birth on an island at the edge of the Bering Sea to his return thirty years later to confront the turbulent emotions and complex legacy of his father's suicide.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 16, 2010
    ISBN9780062002075
    Ichthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide
    Author

    David Vann

    Published in twenty languages, David Vann's internationally bestselling books have won fifteen prizes, including best foreign novel in France and Spain, and have appeared on seventy-five Best Books of the Year lists in a dozen countries. He's written for the New York Times, Atlantic, Esquire, Outside, Sunset, Men's Journal, McSweeney's, and many other publications, and he has been a Guggenheim, Stegner, and NEA fellow.

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    • 4/5
      Semi-autobiographical, so not exactly an autobiography, not exactly a novel but nor a series of short stories, what matters most to Legend of a Suicide is its subject: the suicide of a father and its effect on his son. Although this can make its narrative disconnected, the writing is excellent, intimate and, at times, painfully honest. Roy is a troubled teenager whose father is a distant and accident-prone presence, but when he is invited to spend the year with his father on a remote Alaskan island, Roy reluctantly accepts. When he does so he is brought dangerously close to his father's problems. Roy tells the story as a "what-if", seeking both exorcism and revenge with a cruelly sweet fantasy.David Vann's own experience looms large in this novel. His own father committed suicide and the bulk of the story takes place in Alaska, Vann's own birthplace. At times it can seem too much of a personal journal than a novel for public disclosure, albeit an excellently crafted one. Similarly, at times its plot or pace could be tighter. For this reason is struggles to be compelling; but perhaps because of this it is a highly rewarding read.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of Roy, who's father committed suicide when Roy was still a boy. That of course is something that will never leave Roy. Forever mulling over the act and the actions that came before, gripped by it's memory and trying to escape the shadow it casts over his life by retelling the story of his fathers life he finally, with one beautiful, gruelling act of revenge lays this dark ghost to rest. It is a dark, beautiful, bleak, colourful, clever, moving and brilliant story, one I had to read through without pause. Fantastic.
    • 3/5
      Legends of a Suicide is a collection of short stories revolving around the suicide death of a young boy’s father and its aftermath. Given the subject matter and that I don’t typically enjoy short stories, I knew I was taking a risk when I agreed to take part in this TLC Book Tour. What I found was that the subject matter and short story format worked well. Roy is a young boy in early adolescence when his father commits suicide. The stories leading up to a trip with him and his father into the Alaskan wilderness do jump around in time, but this made sense. He was trying to piece together the story of his father's life and what that means to him.Despite my understanding of why the stories about living with his mother and about his father's second ex-wife didn't seem connected, I didn't really connect with Roy or the book until the novella, which tells of Roys time living alone with his father in a cabin deep in the the Alaskan wilderness. I kept wondering why in the world his mother would have allowed this to happen. I wanted to hug Roy to myself and keep him safe while his father broke down and cried in the night, leaving Roy alone to deal with adult baggage to which no child should ever be made privy.My heart broke for Roy and I think that is why the events that take place in the second section of the novella became too graphic for me to continue reading. I do not want to go into much detail in this review, but is during this section that we see inside the head of Roy's father. It is not a pretty place and the graphic and distant way that certain things were described were too much for me. Even if I had anticipated this turn, I don't think I could have continued reading the novella. It was just too real and I didn't like the pictures that were painted inside my head.I did finish the remaining short stories after skipping the remained of the novella, but the spell was broken because I don't know who the novella was resolved. I think Legend of a Suicide would have packed a tremendous punch had I been able to read it all. My inability to read the entire book is a credit to the author. Gore for its own sake does not usually bother me in the way that Legend of a Suicide did. It was because David Vann brought me in to Roy's situation that I couldn't stomach what was happening. Vann is a very talented young writer and well worth the risk I took to participate in this tour. I truly do look forward to what Vann does next.
    • 4/5
      The Short of It:Legend of a Suicide is like a drop of water upon a smooth, glassy lake. Small, concentric circles that eventually grow in size as they ripple across the water. Beautiful in one sense, slightly disturbing in another but all in all, an unforgettable read.The Rest of It:Legend of a Suicide is collection of stories. One novella, and five shorter stories. Although they are separate and some were even published independently of the others, they still have a common theme; the relationship between a father and his son.As the publisher’s blurb indicates, this collection is semi-autobiographical in that the author’s father did commit suicide but much of what happens in each story is fictionalized. This is true particularly for the novella, which is quite touching and shocking at the same time.Vann does an exceptional job with setting. Nearly all of the stories take place in his native Alaska, so there is much to love. The writing makes you feel as if you’re there and considering the fact that I’ve never visited Alaska, I was quite impressed with how beautiful and true these passages seemed. I could smell the rain and feel the mist and taste the salt in the air. Vann’s writing is extremely lush.Each story is carefully written. The characters are well-developed, the dialogue realistic but after reading the novella, I was relieved in one sense but felt totally violated in another. I won’t discuss what happens within the novella, but I was so completely absorbed in it, that when I realized what had taken place, I felt a tad violated. As if someone had taken advantage of me and then left me feeling all used up.I grew up with parents that were/are clinically depressed. The guilt that I felt as a child over not being able to make them happy, ate me up and created scars that will never fade. It’s clear that David Vann experienced much of the same pain. The guilt that a child feels over losing a parent to suicide cannot be measured. It’s ongoing and overwhelming to consider. These stories clearly share that pain with us.Legend of a Suicide is not a fun read. It’s not the kind of book to curl-up with, hot cocoa in hand, cat at your side. BUT, it’s beautifully written and although haunting at times and even a bit graphic, the images have stayed with me and I would definitely recommend it.
    • 5/5
      Roy Fenn is the autobiographical version of David Vann as he explores his father's suicide. Legend of a Suicide is made up of five short stories and one novella. Most of the stories take place in Alaska, except one with Roy as an angry teen in California, watching his mother date a myriad of men. The novella, Sukkwan Island, is in two parts and takes place on a remote island off Alaska, reachable only by small plane, where Roy, age thirteen, and his father are to live for one year.my review:I thought these stories and the writing was very powerful. I was moved by Roy and felt his pain. Sukkawan Island was a fascinating look at time spent in a remote wilderness. Roy's dad, Jim, dumps his emotional baggage on Roy and I felt him crushed by the weight of it. Just two people unequiped to deal with their surroundings, one man unequipped to deal with himself, and a thirteen year old boy unequiped to deal with his father's issues.The novella didn't seem to go with the other stories, so I don't think they were meant to tell just one story but several different ones. This did not detract from the experience of this book though.These are not sentimental stories, but stark, truthful words to make a powerful reading experience that I highly recommend.my rating 5/5
    • 5/5
      I read it as a novel over a weekend and was blown away. It makes a little more sense as a story collection, but I´m glad I thought of it as a novel while I read it.
    • 4/5
      In this collection of semiautobiographical stories, a son copes with his father's eventual suicide. David Vann explores dark thoughts and re-imagines events in an introspective, sharp manner. Legend of a Suicide naturally flows with honesty and grace.
    • 2/5
      How do you rate a book which shoots itself in the head halfway through?
    • 5/5
      In the opening story of this collection we are told of the suicide of Roy's father. The next two stories then follow the romantic entanglements of Roy's divorced parents. One of the most intriguing things happens about half-way through the collection when it becomes clear that Roy is fictionally inserting himself into his father's lonely life with moving and surprising outcomes. The author plays with ideas of how the bereaved reconfigure the lives of the deceased (reflecting back perhaps on what he is doing as an author), and the many ways that a child may sacrifice himself to his parent.These are astute stories about the relationship that a son has with his father - the dialogue is so realistic, and the psychological observations feel true throughout. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I cannot believe I am the first LT member to review this book. As such, I am going to make a prediction: it is going to be big, very big. It is going to be big because it will do the rounds of reading groups, because it is very well written, and because of a thing that happens in the central long short story/ novella. My goodness! That thing! You will never forget it.The book has garnered plenty of publicity due to its semi-autobiographical nature. Vann's father was a dentist in Alaska and he did commit suicide. The stories in the collection all play with this key event in the author's life. They do so in a style reminiscient of Tobias Wolff. In fact, I would say Vann strives a little too hard to achieve this style; but the work still gets 5 stars from me due to that startling thing to which I have alluded. The Alaskan setting too is fabulously sketched and lends the book a spectral, other-worldly feel. The Road meets The Shining via This Boy's Life!

    Book preview

    Ichthyology - David Vann

    David Vann

    Ichthyology

    A Story from Legends of a Suicide

    For my father,

    JAMES EDWIN VANN,

    1940–1980

    Contents

    Begin Reading

    About the Author

    Praise

    Other Books by David Vann

    Credits

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    ICHTHYOLOGY

    MY MOTHER GAVE birth on Adak Island, a small hunk of rock and snow far out on the Aleutian chain, at the edge of the Bering Sea. My father was serving two years as a dentist in the Navy; he had wanted Alaska because he liked hunting and fishing, but he obviously had not known about Adak at the time of his request. Had my mother known, she would have scratched out the request herself. Given enough information, my mother has never made the wrong choice.

    So it was that she refused to have her sweltering, jaundiced baby yanked out of Adak’s underground naval hospital and thrown into the jet that sat waiting on the runway for more than six hours. Because my temperature was 105 degrees and still climbing, the doctors and my father recommended I be flown to the mainland, to a real hospital (no one on Adak survived even a mild heart attack while

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