Suicide (novel)

One of the work's major themes is the coherence of a human life. The narrator and "you" see human life as an absurd collection of meaningless events, but "your" suicide gives previously meaningless actions meaning. "Your" suicide organizes "your" life into a coherent narrative. The narrator claims that "your" suicide has actually become the beginning of "your" life story. The book, fittingly, begins by recounting "your" suicide.^[3]

Much of the analysis and interpretation of Suicide hinges on the fact that ten days after giving the text to his publisher, Levé hanged himself. The book has been interpreted as autobiographical. It has also been viewed as an internal dialogue between the two sides of Levé ("you" and "I").^[4]

Throughout the work, Levé ensures "your" motivations for committing suicide are unknown to the narrator and, consequently, the reader. In the book, "you" leave open a comic book to a two-page spread as an explanation of "your" suicide. But, when "your wife" sees "you" dead, she knocks over the comic book. Nobody knows which page "you" thought explained "your" suicide.

Contrastingly, Levé is said to have left a suicide note. Some reviewers say these differences between the book and Levé's own life were meant to separate the book from Levé's own act.^[5]