The Suicides

Originally published in 1969, this captivating sequel to The Silentiary from Argentine author Di Benedetto (1922–1986) completes a loosely connected trilogy, each volume of which is focused on a man facing an existential crisis. The unnamed narrator, a 32-year-old newspaper reporter, receives an assignment to write about suicide. It turns out the narrator’s father killed himself when the narrator was a boy, and as he pieces together the stories behind two recent suicides with photographer Marcela, he remembers his father, who died at 33 (“I had never thought about it seriously but as I began approaching that age, the memory came back to me more vividly”). A womanizer, the narrator withholds his emotions from the women he sleeps with, first a teacher and then Marcela. He’s not a good guy—the paper’s research assistant Bibi calls him “unpleasant”—but there’s an undeniable appeal to his sardonic wit (he nicknames Bibi “Card Catalogue” for “her unfailing and perfectly ordered memory”). The novel’s success lies in the author’s light touch with weighty themes, which he layers into the narrative with snippets of philosophical writing on suicide from Confucius, Nietzsche, and others. This is brilliant. (Jan.)