Poet and writer Juliet Patterson was in her 40s when her father, James, died by suicide. James was a baby when his father, Edward, died by suicide. And Patterson’s mom, Carolyn, was elevating younger kids when her father, William, died by suicide.
Patterson spent greater than a decade making an attempt to make sense of this household historical past, repeatedly visiting Pittsburg, Kansas, the town her father, Edward and William all known as dwelling. It’s an previous mining city with a floor pockmarked by sinkholes, scars of previous trade which will have additionally left marks in town’s residents. As Patterson researched the lads in her household tree and suicide itself, she questioned in regards to the impact this wounded historical past may have had on her household.
The outcome of this meticulous analysis and soul-searching is Sinkhole: A Natural History of Suicide. The memoir is at moments reminiscent of Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Like Williams, Patterson surveys each the land round her and her inside emotional panorama. She searches for connections between the Industrial Revolution’s results on society and her household’s repeated losses earlier than in the end recognizing that each tragedy stems from quite a few influences.
Patterson’s poetic sensibility informs her prose as she weaves collectively concepts about household and analysis about land in a lyrical method. She’s searching for solutions in Sinkhole, however the path that results in a suicide isn’t linear. It’s extra akin to a sinkhole, Patterson writes, spreading and consuming every part round it.
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