The Savage God: A Study of Suicide - Softcover

Alvarez, Al

4.03

1,547 ratings by Goodreads

9780747559054: The Savage God: A Study of Suicide

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747559058 ISBN 13: 9780747559054

Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2002

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Using the untimely death of the poet and friend, Sylvia Plath, as a point of departure, Al Alvarez confronts the controversial and often taboo area of human behaviour: suicide. "The Savage God" explores the cultural attitudes, theories, truths and fallacies surrounding suicide and refracts them through the windows of philosophy, art and literature: following the black thread leading from Dante, through Donne, Chatterton and the Romantic Agony, to Dada and Pavese. Entwined within this sensitive study is the author's deeply personal account of his own unsuccessful suicide attempt, and together they form the most fascinating and compelling meditation on the "Savage God" at the heart of human existence.

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Review:

"A beautifully written book, full of poetic truths. ... It adds a new dimension to the persepctive of suicide." -- New Society

"Alvarez writes a thoughtful and thought provoking narrative that is deeply compelling." -- Student Direct, 9th December 2002

"Widely admired ... Alvares does what Levi says: he writes what the politeness and prevarications of speech might have defeated." -- Guardian

About the Author:

Al Alvarez, poet, critic, novelist, sportsman, poker player, has for seventy years been hard to categorize. Author of over twenty books including POKER and THE BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN he is one of the great writers of the 20th Century.

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