The Higher Blue: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide
By David Vann
4/5
()
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.
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.
Read more from David Vann
Sukkwan Island: A Novella from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Halibut on the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aquarium Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Day on Earth: A Portrait of the NIU School Shooter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIchthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Legend of Good Men: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ketchikan: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rhoda: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Higher Blue
Related ebooks
Ketchikan: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Friend - Written to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr 1866-1879 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Legend of Good Men: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rhoda: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The The Fish Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Claims Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOutside the Gates Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ichthyology: A Short Story from Legend of a Suicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stay This Day and Night With Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5First Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShoes for Anthony: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lesser Ruins Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTranslator Translated: A Novella Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA New Race of Men from Heaven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Songs for a Lost Continent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Octopus Has Three Hearts: Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSudden Traveler: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Birdeye Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPastoral Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The School on Heart's Content Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineveh: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The World Is a Wedding Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoulhound and Fancyman: A Rucksack Universe Story: Rucksack Universe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Kane and Margaret: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSome New Ambush Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enchanted April Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/538 Bar Blues Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Professor Schiff's Guilt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Cats I Have Loved Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Short Stories For You
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5100 Years of the Best American Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skeleton Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Explicit Content: Red Hot Stories of Hardcore Erotica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sex and Erotic: Hard, hot and sexy Short-Stories for Adults Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Past Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Novices of Lerna Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Scorched Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Tuesdays in Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ficciones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night Side of the River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before You Sleep: Three Horrors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Higher Blue
10 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Semi-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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Legends 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roy 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In 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.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5How do you rate a book which shoots itself in the head halfway through?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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
The Higher Blue - David Vann
David Vann
The Higher Blue
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
THE HIGHER BLUE
IN THE VERY end—always a surprising time—my father fixated on zabaglione. This is all hearsay, you understand, but I like to think that when my father purchased his first copper pot, when he stood in his dental smock in a tiny kitchenware store in the only mall of a nearly abandoned Alaskan town and vaulted startlingly into his new life, I was at his elbow selecting a whisk.
My father’s house had no furniture. It was brand new, and everything was still bare, no address even. A faint hill near the top of a ridge, paper birch spaced regular as candles, darkness at 4:00 p.m., March 15, 1980, aurora borealis in pleasing shades of green unnoticed, a