Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious

by Alix Strauss

Book Overview

Author Alix Strauss takes a provocative look at the self-imposed deaths of the famous and infamous in Death Becomes Them. In this fascinating and intimate chronicle of celebrity suicides, the spotlight shines on the lonely last moments of Kurt Cobain and Ernest Hemingway, Abbie Hoffman and Adolf Hitler, Dorothy Dandridge, Sigmund Freud, Hunter S. Thompson, and others. Death Becomes Them explores their sadness and madness, their accomplishments...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006172856X
• ISBN13: 9780061728563
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Celebrity Suicides Unveiled

Looking for a grisly, gruesome, yet morbidly fascinating read? By its very nature dark and disturbing, Alix Strauss's //Death Becomes Them// won't appeal to everybody, but for those willing to come along for the ride, it's a compelling and original book that explores the suicides of the rich, famous, and notorious. Strauss, a journalist and short-story author, has written the ultimate celebrity tell-all book: one which delves into the final days of famous troubled and tortured souls ranging from Sylvia Plath to Vincent Van Gogh to Kurt Cobain and Hunter S. Thompson. Not only does she recount the methods of their suicides, she looks at the factors leading up to those fateful decisions, as well. Troubling yet fascinating, Strauss weaves a compelling batch of vignettes, devoting no more than a handful of pages to each suicide, but they resonate with depth. Sigmund Freud, for instance, had a severe cigar habit that led to mouth cancer, with holes in his jaw making his final days sheer agony. Facts like these help us to answer the biggest question of all, why? Eerie, yet a genuine page-turner, //Death Becomes Them// is a must-read for anybody curious about death and able to handle the often dirty details that go along with it. Reviewed by Mark Petruska

Great Read

Alix Strauss has complied a comprehensive and intriguing read for the twisted voyeur in me. I've learned so much about the demise of famous authors, poets, artists and rock stars, their rise and demise. No bloody detail is spared. If you like dark, this book is for you.

A real review

This is a fascinating and comprehensive book and Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood in Boston last time I checked.....

A Brilliant Read!

I couldn't disagree more with Peter Steinberg as I have read the book and thoroughly enjoyed EVERY MOMENT OF IT! I found the content to be tremendously interesting, brilliantly presented, and furthermore a wealth of knowledge! These suicides are wonderfully described allowing you to feel what each icon thought, felt, and did in their last days before their suicide. As a response to Peter Steinberg's review, I have done my own fact checking and found his facts nit-picking and often incorrect. For instance, Plath's birth place of Jamaica Plain is a historic neighborhood of 4.4 square miles (11 km2) in Boston, Massachusetts! I could go on counteracting these ridiculous, unjustified criticisms, but instead I wish to compliment Alix and her fabulously brilliant read and couldn't say enough to recommend this book to everyone!

Fantastic Read!

I highly recommend this book! This was one of the most fascinating and compelling books I've ever read! Each profile is well executed with page turning details, descriptions, and suspenseful intricate moments unfolding the mysterious stories of these accomplished figures. It's dark, it's informative, it's FANTASTIC!