“What do you mean?” I asked, as a really bad feeling began to gurgle up from the well of my ignored gut feelings. “This!” He stopped and nodded toward the urn upraised in his hands, then spun slowly around, indicating the entire island. “Go through with what?” I asked, sincerely clueless. “You know, I didn’t think she had the balls to go through with it,” Gordon said as he commenced blazing the trail.
The scene occurs near the end of the novel when Keats and Gordon are near to fulfilling their promise to their shared best friend, Shelly, to spread her ashes at a place beloved by her. At the time of the novel’s publication, I thought I’d receive some blow back for this scene, but I never really did. It does not necessarily reflect my personal thoughts on the subject, but it does present a more unorthodox and controversial perspective on the issue of suicide. The conversation that takes place fit the characters and the context. I ask you to remember that this is a work of fiction.
The tragedy did, however, call to my mind a passage near the end of my first novel, SO SHELLY, which I thought I might share here. I often feel that the need to express such thoughts are little more than creeping on the grief of others anyway. In the wake of Robin William’s suicide, I’ve resisted to weigh in with my thoughts because, really, who cares what I think.
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