Publisher's Synopsis
Un inquietante itinerario moral, estético y literario a través de relatos cuyo nexo es el suicidio.Suicidios ejemplares reúne una serie de relatos en torno a un mismo tema, con una amplia gama de posibilidades: saltar al vacìo, volarse la tapa de los sesos, tomar veneno, destriparse, abrir el gas y meter la cabeza en el horno, arrojarse bajo las ruedas de un coche, dejarse consumir por la melancolìa, convertirse en fantasma e, incluso, hacerse fulminar por un relámpago.No obstante, los protagonistas de estos relatos solo coquetean con el suicidio, quizá lo llegan a planear meticulosamente, pero jamás lo llevan a cabo.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Model Suicides gathers a series of tales surrounding a common theme: suicide. According to the author, this book is a clear precedent to Bartleby & Co. as it narrates the stories of people who withdraw from an activity. In this way, Vila-Matas offers us a tour through a series of imaginary suicides: some are heroic, others violent, and others merely metaphoric.
The range of possibilities includes leaping, blowing one's brains out, taking poison, disembowelment, sticking one's head in the gas oven, throwing oneself under an oncoming car, consumption by depression, becoming a ghost, and even getting struck by lightning. Nevertheless, the protagonists of these tales just flirt with suicide, even plan it out meticulously, but they never carry it out. All of them, far from succumbing to desperation, are intoxicated by an aesthetic ideal. Their wish: to live a different life.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Model Suicides gathers a series of tales surrounding a common theme: suicide. According to the author, this book is a clear precedent to Bartleby & Co. as it narrates the stories of people who withdraw from an activity. In this way, Vila-Matas offers us a tour through a series of imaginary suicides: some are heroic, others violent, and others merely metaphoric.
The range of possibilities includes leaping, blowing one's brains out, taking poison, disembowelment, sticking one's head in the gas oven, throwing oneself under an oncoming car, consumption by depression, becoming a ghost, and even getting struck by lightning. Nevertheless, the protagonists of these tales just flirt with suicide, even plan it out meticulously, but they never carry it out. All of them, far from succumbing to desperation, are intoxicated by an aesthetic ideal. Their wish: to live a different life.
