This reading group guide for History of a Suicide includes an introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading and resources, and a Q&A with author Jill Bialosky . The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. Introduction "It is so nice to be happy. It always gives me a good feeling to see other people happy. It is so easy to achieve." --Kim''s journal entry, May 3, 1988 On the night of April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky''s twenty-one-year-old sister Kim came home from a bar in downtown Cleveland. She argued with her boyfriend on the phone.

Then she went into the garage, climbed into her mother''s car, turned on the ignition, and fell asleep. Those are the simple facts, but the act of suicide is anything but simple. In a remarkable work of literary nonfiction, Bialosky re-creates with unsparing honesty her sister''s inner life, and in so doing, opens a window on the nature of suicide itself--especially the impact on those who remain behind. Combining Kim''s diaries with family history and memoir, drawing on the works of doctors and psychologists as well as writers from Melville to Plath, History of a Suicide is a stunning and compassionate exploration of human frailty and strength that brings a crucial and all too rarely discussed subject out of the shadows. Topics & Questions for Discussion 1. It took Jill Bialosky over ten years of thinking, researching and writing her memoir about her sister''s suicide before she published it. She cites feelings of shame, guilt and worries about exposing her personal life and her family''s as stumbling blocks in telling her story. How do shame and guilt prevent us from understanding suicide? Why do you think the experience of suicide is so difficult to talk about? What are the risks of keeping it in the closet? 2.

A review in the Chronicle of Higher Education said about History of a Suicide : "This book, among the many fine books written about depression and suicide, feels fresh and fundamental. It makes essential reading, and not just for those struggling intimately with suicidal thoughts of their own or of an intimate, but also for bereavement groups, college students, health-care professionals, educators, guidance counselors, authors, parents, friends, and siblings. It has tremendous potential to reach--with its questions, its intertextuality, its personal urgency, its generosity--a wide spectrum of readers, perhaps most especially high-school and college students, readers who are the age that Kim was when she took her own life. It is also a book I''d like to put into everyone''s hands." How has reading History of a Suicide changed or altered your view of suicide? Do you think this book is useful for readers who haven''t experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide, and if so, why? 3. Often, there''s a stigma associated with suicide. Why do you think we feel shame for actions taken by another person? How do you think that the author prevents the lingering sense of shame from coloring her memory of her sister? What other ways can you suggest? 4. Throughout History of a Suicide , Bialosky cites various works of literature.

Why do you think she does so? What effect does it have on your understanding of her experience? 5. One of the writers Bialosky leans on heavily is Herman Melville, a man whose life was also touched by suicide. Bialosky writes, "Perhaps in writing the prophetic, meticulous novel of Ahab''s obsessive, diabolical quest for the white whale, Melville had hoped to crack open something of the mystery of his son''s or his own despair." Do you agree that Ahab''s monomania is an apt metaphor for a suicide''s despair, or a survivor''s? Do you see that level of obsession in Kim''s life, or the author''s? 6. Library Journal wrote, "[Bialosky] delivers a sure sense of a ''beautiful girl'' who took her own life at age 21. "Bialosky''s depiction of her sister, Kim, is that of a vibrant young woman. How does she accomplish this? What''s the effect of including Kim''s own journal entries throughout History of a Suicide ? Does Bialosky succeed in making Kim''s experience understandable? Writers of personal memoir hope that their story will illuminate for readers their own personal experiences. Has Bialosky succeeded in making her story universal? Are you able to see aspects of yourself or others in Bialosky''s rendering of Kim and Kim''s family? 7.

Darin Strauss said, "This is the kind of book that can teach us - all of us - about what it means to be a thinking, feeling human being. A book, in other words, that will teach you how to live." What lessons did you learn from reading History of a Suicide ? How can a book about suicide also be a book that teaches us how to live? 8. Bialosky''s mantra is "The more I know, the more I can bear." What do you think she means by this? Do you agree? Why or why not? 9. Several of Bialosky''s poems are incorporated in her memoir. How does her poetry help you better understand her subject? Why do you think Bialosky was driven to write about her sister in poetry as well as in memoir? Have you ever written about your own life? 10. Faith plays an important role in Bialosky''s life.

She writes that she often finds herself going to synagogue to think about Kim. How does Bialosky''s faith help her cope with Kim''s death? Unlike the author, Kim was unsure of her faith. How do you think this affected her experience? 11. Near the end of the book, Dr. Shneidman identifies Kim''s father as the "villain" in Kim''s life. Did you agree when you read this statement? Do you think there are villains (and heroes) in your own life? Why do you think Bialosky included Sylvia Plath''s poem "Daddy" in her discussion? Do you see parallels between the depictions of the speaker''s father in Plath''s poem and the way in which Kim''s father is portrayed? 12. In addition to her father, Kim''s boyfriend is an important man in Kim''s life. Are there parallels in her relationships with the two? How do you think growing up in a house full of women affected Kim''s relationships with men? 13.

Of the group of suicide survivors, Bialosky writes, "Each time I leave group I tell myself I won''t be coming back, but then it''s the beginning of the month, the first Friday, and I find myself sitting in the stiff black chair, Kleenex bunched in my hand, comforted by being with strangers who share the same hollow ache." What do you think it is about this experience that gives Bialosky relief? Have you been in a similar situation? What might be the value of attending a suicide survivor''s group, or any other kind of support group? 14. Motherhood is clearly an important part of Bialosky''s identity. Bialosky writes about the loss of her two babies, one of which occurred three months after Kim died and the subsequent birth of her son. Why do you think being a mother prompted her to write her memoir about Kim''s suicide? How has her sister''s suicide affected her role as a mother to her own son? Compare and contrast the roles of motherhood for the women in History of a Suicide . If you are a parent, has having a child made you reexamine your past? 15. Bialosky describes the search for a genetic link to suicide, and indeed Kim''s suicide may have had a genetic component, since the author''s mother also suffered from depression and there were other suicides in Kim''s family history. Would confirmation of a genetic link to suicide affect the way you think about those who commit or attempt to commit suicide? How? Do you think the roots of depression and suicidal tendencies are biological, environmental, psychological, sociological? 16.

People struggling with depression, Bialosky writes, "do not have more problems with others, but they are less equipped to deal with them." A friend of Bialosky''s, who also lost a sibling to suicide, compares the normal response to pain or depression to the automatic movement of your hand away from a hot kettle on the stove, and says that "for my brother the inner pain was so bad that instinctively he couldn''t protect himself." Why do you think it is that one sibling can possess this instinctive sense of protection while another does not? Do you think Bialosky''s realization that some young people do not have the "equipment" to deal with pain led to her decision to write this book? 17. Entertainment Weekly said of History of a Suicide , "rarely has such a loss been rendered so poetically." How do you think being a poet has contributed to Bialosky''s inquiry into her sister''s suicide? 18. In recent months there have been many "grief" memoirs published including Joyce Carol Oates'' Widow''s Story and Joan Didion''s Blue Nights . What do you think it is about grief as a subject that draws so many different writers to it? Can you compare and contrast these works with History of a Suicide ? What are the risks and rewards involved in writing about grief? 19. Bialosky writes, "I have struggled to make [Kim''s] lapse into darkness and the devastation of suicide understandable.

Suicide should never happen to anyone. I want you to know as much as I know." After reading History of a Suicide , do you feel you have a better unders.