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Drafts of a Suicide Note
“As far as I know, you can only die once…� But when Aetna Simmons disappears from her lonely Bermuda cottage, she leaves behind not one but ten suicide notes. Ten different suicide notes. And no other trace to speak of, not even a corpse, as if she’d never existed.
Drafts of a Suicide Note is the darkly enigmatic love letter of Kenji Okada-Caines, a petty criminal who once exposited on English literary classics and now, marooned on his native isle, nurtures an obsession with Aetna’s writing. His murky images of a woman with ten voices and no face launch him into waking nightmares, driving him to confront his lifetime’s worth of failures as a scholar, lover, and opiate addict. His wild conspiracy theories of Aetna as an impostor ten times over lead him to the doorstep of the Japanese mother who turned her back on him, and to the horrifying discovery that the great love of his life isn’t who she seems to be. Kenji’s is a story of dire misunderstandings and the truths we hide even from the ones we love.
Drafts of a Suicide Note is the darkly enigmatic love letter of Kenji Okada-Caines, a petty criminal who once exposited on English literary classics and now, marooned on his native isle, nurtures an obsession with Aetna’s writing. His murky images of a woman with ten voices and no face launch him into waking nightmares, driving him to confront his lifetime’s worth of failures as a scholar, lover, and opiate addict. His wild conspiracy theories of Aetna as an impostor ten times over lead him to the doorstep of the Japanese mother who turned her back on him, and to the horrifying discovery that the great love of his life isn’t who she seems to be. Kenji’s is a story of dire misunderstandings and the truths we hide even from the ones we love.
- GenresLiterary Fiction
Audible Audio
First published October 11, 2019
3 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Mandy-Suzanne Wong
9books39followersMandy-Suzanne Wong is a Bermudian writer of fiction and essays. She is the author of The Box, a novel (Graywolf, House of Anansi); Drafts of a Suicide Note (Regal House), a Foreword INDIES literary-fiction finalist and PEN Open Book Award nominee; Listen, We All Bleed (New Rivers), a PEN/Galbraith-nominated essay collection and EcoLit Best Book of 2021; and Awabi, a duet of short stories, winner of the Digging Press Chapbook Series Award. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Arcturus, Black Warrior Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Litro, and Necessary Fiction, winning recognition in the Best of the Net, Aeon Award, and Eyelands Flash Fiction competitions.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 21, 2019
Ten unique suicide notes, no dead body, and a washed-up academic who thinks literary scholarship can solve this mystery. Rife with innovative textual experiments, touches of humor, and dramatic intrigue, Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s Drafts of a Suicide Note is a challenging and satisfying read. In a book full of mistrust and backstabs, truth only matters if self-gain comes with it, and this gloriously dark book radiates with each character’s messed-up version of light. Wong’s debut novel twists conventions and wrings something new.
July 21, 2019
What a tale - unusually set in Bermuda and unusually entirely expressed in Bermudian. It's a version of English utterly its own, so much so that it comes close to being a character in its own right. The novel is charming and gripping and horrifying. Funny and sad and frivolous and dark. A story, you begin by thinking, of Kenji Okada-Caines, the drug dealer with a conscience who falls over the mystery of the ten drafts of a suicide note. But then the story draws in, and the centre shifts from Kenji, whose Japanese mother's calm and frosty control are the bane of his life, to include his bigamous and wildly religious girlfriend, whose feckless charm hides a mighty Techie brain.
But no more, or it will be too much. You will have to discover this Bermudian world for yourself. Dive into the sun and its shadows, the seas and the slang. What a feat!
But no more, or it will be too much. You will have to discover this Bermudian world for yourself. Dive into the sun and its shadows, the seas and the slang. What a feat!
February 21, 2020
A delightfully disturbing journey into one man's obsession with the psychological state of another. Set in Bermuda, the locale seems to be a character all its own; providing a rich, colorful tapestry and background to this engaging and mysterious novel. Each character is its own self-contained mystery, full of humor, neurosis, and obsession; each of them engaging and charming and uniquely lovable. Then of course, the 10 drafts of a suicide note. Each a different perspective into the mind of a disturbed woman, as told through the eyes of the man obsessed with the case. This novel takes the reader on two journeys - one, to discover the motive of a woman who would write ten "goodbyes", each one different than the one before; and two, the ones left behind - those complicated people swirling about in a beautiful world, bouncing into each other and leaving their own special kind of mark.
May 15, 2020
Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s DRAFTS OF A SUICIDE NOTE is a smart, elegant, genre-defying exploration of our propensity to flee our true selves, especially when those selves are at odds with our family and culture of origin. The protagonist, Kenji Okada-Caines, is a chronic underachiever except for his white-glove drug-dealing, and even that soon unravels. Possessed of an outsized intellect, he has cultivated a persona of jaded cool with which he glosses over his failure to launch—as a Thomas Hardy scholar, as a writer, and as a true partner to the (married and unavailable) love of his life. Born of a Japanese mother and a black, Bermudian father, he’s felt adrift all his life, an outsider, even on an island whose every tourist spot, pink-sand beach, and colonial architectural vestige he knows intimately. When he becomes haunted by visions of a mysterious woman and her bizarre “oeuvre� of ten suicide notes, the noose of his self-deception tightens. Expect clever, noir-esque turns of phrases, intriguing characters, and fascinating diversions into literary criticism, finance, and industrial data destruction; and a lingering discomfort that, despite our best efforts, our sins and shortcomings can never truly be erased.
August 13, 2019
An alluring mystery that is wholly impressive in how it outmaneuvers the reader at every turn. Wong deliciously navigates through an elaborate design of deception and intrigue. Every answer brings with it more questions; every suicide note, more turmoil inflicted on Kenji’s personal life. The characters have been drawn with such beautifully visceral flaws that their arrogant certainty and suffocating self-doubt become our own. Wong’s amusing style of prose keeps Kenji’s devastating journey enlivened � yet haunting. The result is a well-crafted novel that succeeds in landing every emotional punch. A stellar debut from a promising new author.
December 16, 2019
A Bermudian man’s curiosity about a woman leaving behind 10 suicide notes leads to an unhealthy obsession. What follows is a literary and “psychological autopsy� of the deceased woman's life, as well as the unraveling of his own melancholic and complex love relationship. Beautifully-written, Wong has created a gorgeous, moody world that is rich with vibrant Caribbean language, voice, and landscapes. I love novels about obsession. DRAFTS is a stand-out tale that explores both the nature of obsession and its terrible consequences. I won’t soon forget Kenji.
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June 27, 2019Bermuda
November 28, 2019
A gem. I highly recommend it. Can’t believe only 3 people rated this.
November 24, 2024
2.5 - almost DNF. plot and characters are interesting, but pacing is really off. repetitive at points and slowly, painfully drawn out to the end.
February 25, 2021
2.75 ⭐️
This was very nearly a DNF when I put the book down 100 pages in, and never wanted to go back. It is a SLOW beginning before I became invested in what was happening. Eventually I decided the writing style was beautiful and clever enough that I wanted to give it a second chance. The middle majority of the book was SUPER FUN, and I was so glad I came back! Annnndddd then the ending. Leaving spoiler free, but I was not super happy with how this story concluded. So, in summary, gorgeous writing, but not my favorite story.
This was very nearly a DNF when I put the book down 100 pages in, and never wanted to go back. It is a SLOW beginning before I became invested in what was happening. Eventually I decided the writing style was beautiful and clever enough that I wanted to give it a second chance. The middle majority of the book was SUPER FUN, and I was so glad I came back! Annnndddd then the ending. Leaving spoiler free, but I was not super happy with how this story concluded. So, in summary, gorgeous writing, but not my favorite story.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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