Rating: 
Summary: AFTER THIS BOOK...
Review: ... no one should dare to write about suicide.THE SAVAGE GOD is the most bright, perceptive,sensitive and all encompasing title.A.Alvarez is one of those writers with only one book kept in his soul, but much better that so many I know who write books as often and fastly as a rat has litters.And having enjoyed being a book publisher during the last 35 years,I should know. I would bet my most precious editions that Alvarez never writes for the public again. Georgina Greco
Rating:
Summary: An excellent study of the many aspects of suicide.
Review: Alvarez's classic book, "The Savage God," examines the religious, sociological, philosophical and literary aspects of suicide through the ages. In pagan Rome, suicide was habitual and considered an honorable way to die. In the Middle Ages, suicide was regarded with revulsion as a mortal sin. Dante, in his "Inferno," consigned suicides to the seventh circle of hell, below the burning heretics and murderers. Later on, the Romantics associated premature death with genius and they admired people who ended their lives while they were still at their artistic peak. Throughout history, mankind has viewed suicide as everything from an unforgivable crime of self-murder to the sad act of a person for whom living has become intolerable. In a more personal vein, Alvarez discusses the fascinating poet Sylvia Plath, with whom he was acquainted, as well as his own depression and attempted suicide. The section on Plath is superb. Alvarez was fond of Plath and he admired her work greatly. He reveals in a clear-eyed manner how the forces tearing her apart were stronger than those holding her together. "The Savage God" is an absorbing look at a subject often spoken of in whispers. Alvarez points out that people who lose parents at an early age are more likely to take their own lives. He also examines in depth the strong and mysterious link between creative genius and the impulse toward suicide. "The Savage God" is a work that sheds welcome light on the human condition in all of its complexity, yet Alvarez never presumes to provide easy answers to questions that are ultimately unanswerable.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent study of the many aspects of suicide.
Review: Alvarez's classic book, "The Savage God," examines the religious, sociological, philosophical and literary aspects of suicide through the ages. In pagan Rome, suicide was habitual and considered an honorable way to die. In the Middle Ages, suicide was regarded with revulsion as a mortal sin. Dante, in his "Inferno," consigned suicides to the seventh circle of hell, below the burning heretics and murderers. Later on, the Romantics associated premature death with genius and they admired people who ended their lives while they were still at their artistic peak. Throughout history, mankind has viewed suicide as everything from an unforgivable crime of self-murder to the sad act of a person for whom living has become intolerable. In a more personal vein, Alvarez discusses the fascinating poet Sylvia Plath, with whom he was acquainted, as well as his own depression and attempted suicide. The section on Plath is superb. Alvarez was fond of Plath and he admired her work greatly. He reveals in a clear-eyed manner how the forces tearing her apart were stronger than those holding her together. "The Savage God" is an absorbing look at a subject often spoken of in whispers. Alvarez points out that people who lose parents at an early age are more likely to take their own lives. He also examines in depth the strong and mysterious link between creative genius and the impulse toward suicide. "The Savage God" is a work that sheds welcome light on the human condition in all of its complexity, yet Alvarez never presumes to provide easy answers to questions that are ultimately unanswerable.
Rating: 
Summary: Good History of Changing Attitudes
Review: As someone who suffers from Major Depression and has been suicidal from time to time I've tried to read up on the subject of suicide. This book by A. Alvarez has to be the best study I've read to date. It might be because he himself attempted suicide at one point of his life and therefore has first-hand experience of the subject matter. It might also be because he writes with intelligence and has total control of the english language. This book is very easy to read, unlike a lot of similar studies, and contains invaluable background information on the history of suicide and the Christian church's stance on the subject. For anyone interested in the subject of suicide, this book is a must.
Rating:
Summary: Essence Existence Dada and Blasé Marmots
Review: Dada what a true lunacy it is, and its futile meaninglessness is shown with the bitter truth by the author. Jacques V. is accused of murder and suicide by the author, however I have read otherwise that does not hold this inane beatific Dada Prince so culpable. Suicide a very final act, and I appreciate the author for in no way lauding it but rather showing it in all its self focused pathos. In no way does he make his own suicide attempt glorious or romantic if anything we feel embarrassed at his pathetic state when he reports his troubles to the British constable, who dutifully visits him in his hospital room. Silvia P. is shown to be a brilliant yet somehow empty aching individual. I suppose the starving artist cliché would fit her plagued attention-wanting mindset. It blends the historical superstition, like burying the suicide at the crossroads, and the philosophical, like discussing fat Albert Camus' book on why to continue existence. And yet the book fails since it is lacking in the lineage of nobility, for it neglects to mention of the present unofficial Dada Prince's name and reigning, yet living, exploits. On the whole it reminded me a bit like those encyclopedias those brainy renaissance intellectuals would pen to show how well read and smart they were, but then the author is British, thus you cannot blame him.
Rating:
Summary: One of my most treasured books
Review: I used to read "The Savage God" whenever I was 'in the midst of a dark wood', which for me at least, seemed to occur once every three years. For some reason, the stories of other people's despair and suicide, including Alvarez's own attempted suicide always steadied me. His book is a very literate account of why suicide is such a waste of life and talent. I wouldn't call it a cheerful book, but for me at least, reading it is a very cathartic experience. Alvarez doesn't preach, he merely reports, but he has nevertheless written a very moving book. Read it especially if you are depressed. There is nothing like it on the bookshelves, except perhaps Styron's "Darkness Visible".
Rating:
Summary: The Savage God remains essential
Review: In The Savage God A. Alvarez looks at suicide from the perspective of literature to see how and why "it colors the imaginative world of creative people." To this problem, Mr.Alvarez provides no single answer. Time itself presents a layer of complexity that prevents the satisfying simplicity of a single explantory theory. Yet, in the post-Romantic/Classic era, the contours of an answer can be found that accounts for the suicidal pull today. Art in the modern era enjoys a less restricted scope than that of the classical world; the result is art that is more confrontational. What we find today is that "the more directly an artist confronts the confusions of experience the greater the demands on his intelligence, control and watchfulness." Present always is the risk of being overwhelmed by what one knows, or thinks known. Suicide colors the world of creative people precisely because their confrontation with experience is today inherently risky business. This does not hold for the Surrealists, determined as they were to lighten our load by mocking it, but for the "Extremist Poets," as Alvarez calls them, committed to a "psychic exploration out along the friable eduge which divides the tolerable from the intolerable..." it remains a threatening cloud. It has been over 30 years since the first appearance of The Savage God. Parts of the book show its age. A modern discussion would feature less Freud and more on neurotransmitters, and pharmacological findings. Moreover, it is very clear that Alvarez set the bar too high, attempting in the compass of a small book to survey the history of societal attitudes toward suicide while keeping individual artists, presumably representative of underlying attitudinal currents, in focus at all times. Yet, The Savage God still has its readers and has come to have the status of a standard reference on this dark subject. One reason for its continued appeal is that Alvarez brings to his discussion of actual suicides and suicidal tendencies an uncommonly rich level of thinking, understanding and compassion. His openining chapter on Sylvia Plath, his exposition on Chatterton, and his analysis of that movement toward negation, Dada, carry an insightfulness frequently missing from today's dry, case-history recitals. This is not a book that tries to duplicate the sterile language of a metropolitan hospital's clinical round.
Personally I found the chapter on Plath overwhelmingly sad. The cover of paperback edition of her unabridge Journals carries on its cover a picture of Ms. Plath -- a youthful, optimistic young woman, with a wonderfully wide smile and bright, magnetic eyes. Mr. Alavarez knew her personally. His account of her time in London hammers home the tragedy of an artist who lost her footing on that "friable edge." This is a book which, once read, stays with you.
Rating:
Summary: The Savage God remains essential
Review: In The Savage God A. Alvarez looks at suicide from the perspective of literature to see how and why "it colors the imaginative world of creative people." To this problem, Mr.Alvarez provides no single answer. Time itself presents a layer of complexity that prevents the satisfying simplicity of a single explantory theory. Yet, in the post-Romantic/Classic era, the contours of an answer can be found that accounts for the suicidal pull today. Art in the modern era enjoys a less restricted scope than that of the classical world; the result is art that is more confrontational. What we find today is that "the more directly an artist confronts the confusions of experience the greater the demands on his intelligence, control and watchfulness." Present always is the risk of being overwhelmed by what one knows, or thinks known. Suicide colors the world of creative people precisely because their confrontation with experience is today inherently risky business. This does not hold for the Surrealists, determined as they were to lighten our load by mocking it, but for the "Extremist Poets," as Alvarez calls them, committed to a "psychic exploration out along the friable eduge which divides the tolerable from the intolerable..." it remains a threatening cloud. It has been over 30 years since the first appearance of The Savage God. Parts of the book show its age. A modern discussion would feature less Freud and more on neurotransmitters, and pharmacological findings. Moreover, it is very clear that Alvarez set the bar too high, attempting in the compass of a small book to survey the history of societal attitudes toward suicide while keeping individual artists, presumably representative of underlying attitudinal currents, in focus at all times. Yet, The Savage God still has its readers and has come to have the status of a standard reference on this dark subject. One reason for its continued appeal is that Alvarez brings to his discussion of actual suicides and suicidal tendencies an uncommonly rich level of thinking, understanding and compassion. His openining chapter on Sylvia Plath, his exposition on Chatterton, and his analysis of that movement toward negation, Dada, carry an insightfulness frequently missing from today's dry, case-history recitals. This is not a book that tries to duplicate the sterile language of a metropolitan hospital's clinical round.
Personally I found the chapter on Plath overwhelmingly sad. The cover of paperback edition of her unabridge Journals carries on its cover a picture of Ms. Plath -- a youthful, optimistic young woman, with a wonderfully wide smile and bright, magnetic eyes. Mr. Alavarez knew her personally. His account of her time in London hammers home the tragedy of an artist who lost her footing on that "friable edge." This is a book which, once read, stays with you.
Rating:
Summary: The next best thing to actually killing yourself
Review: THE SAVAGE GOD is a masterpiece despite the fact that it reeks of the english department. And despite the fact that Clive James was right when he accused Alvarez of being guilty of "full frontal solemnity". And like James also said, Alvarez was ludicrously portentious to claim that modern life is far more suicide-provoking than ancient life. The world has *always* been a hellhole.
One of my favorite quotes concerns Alvarez's reaction after waking up from an attempted barbiturate overdose: "My weakened body, my thin breath, the slightest flicker of emotion filled me with distaste. I wanted only to be left to myself. Then, as the months passed, I began gradually to stir into another style of life, less theoretical, less optimistic, less vulnerable. I was ready for an insentient middle age."
A lot of people are ready to be insentient from day one. And I really can't blame them. Here's my favorite quote: "The cult of the Inconnue seemed to attract young people between the two world wars in much the same way as drugs call them now: to opt out before they start, to give up a struggle that frightens them in a world they find distasteful, and to slide away into a deep inner dream."
Rating:
Summary: Both literary and scholarly.
Review: The Savage God is scholarly, aesthetically aware, and an important contribution to a relatively narrow collection of work on suicide and suicidology.
It begins with a nice little biography of Sylvia Plath and proceeds to pull from history, language, philosophy, religion, culture and the author's own bouts with depression and suicide to describe and question a very controversial act/phenomenon.
The book explores the history of suicide's socially-ascribed taboo, considers its artufulness, incorporates modern psychological opinion and ultimately leaves readers both satisfied and emotionally touched.
Can be read for research, but casual readers will enjoy most of this book as well. My rating is 4.5. Nearly a flawless achievment.
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