''The Suicide Shop'' (french: Le Magasin des suicides) is a 2006 black comedy novel by the French writer

Jean Teulé Jean Teulé (26 February 1953 – 18 October 2022) was a French novelist, cartoonist and screenwriter. He was the partner of actress Miou-Miou. Teulé’s book ''Le magasin des suicides'' ('' The Suicide Shop''), published in 2007, has been tu ...

. It is set in a future near- apocalyptic city in a world suffering the ravages of severe

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, where almost everybody is depressed. Symptomatic of this, the pivotal Tuvache family is named after a trio of celebrity suicides – patriarch "Mishima" Tuvache is meant to evoke

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

, while their eldest son Vincent Tuvache is named after

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

and their daughter Marilyn Tuvache is meant to mirror

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

. Their younger son Alain is named after British mathematician and cryptographer

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...

, but proves to be the white sheep of the family.

Synopsis

Within the aforementioned Tuvache family, which runs a shop for suicide equipment amidst these dire circumstances and instructs customers on their use, Alain is born and almost immediately begins to subvert its melancholic orientation. The family has two other children – the anorexic oldest brother, Vincent, who is the creator of the shop's suicide-oriented hardware, and an equally maladjusted and obese sister, Marilyn, who hates her life. Over time, Mishima, Vincent and Marilyn try to break Alain's independent, optimistic outlook on life but never succeed. As time goes on, first Vincent and Marilyn, and then Mishima, are subverted by their exuberant sibling and offspring, until the Suicide Shop transmutes into a novelty store, sending up its earlier macabre and melancholic orientation. In a twist, however, it is Alain who ends his life at the close of the book, aware that he has provided a ''raison d'être'' to reject melancholy and morbidity within his family and the surrounding community.

Film

The novel has been adapted into an animated feature film, '' The Suicide Shop'', directed by

Patrice Leconte Patrice Leconte (; born 12 November 1947) is a French film director, actor, comic strip writer, and screenwriter. Life and career Leconte grew up in Tours, and began making little amateur films at 15. He went to Paris in 1967 and studied at Insti ...

Reception

Mohammed Aïssaoui Mohammed Aïssaoui at Rheims, 2021. Mohammed Aïssaoui (born 1964, Algiers) is a French writer and journalist. He is currently working for ''Le Figaro littéraire''. Works *2006: . *2010: . ** Prix Renaudot de l'essai 2010. ** Prix RFO du livr ...

reviewed the book for ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

'', and wrote that Teulé's humour has "the right distance – neither too light in the content, nor too heavy in the drollery –, a nice dose of derision, and the imagination necessary for such a subject."

English translation

*Jean Teule: ''The Suicide Shop'' (Translated by Sue Dyer): London: Gallic Books: 2008:

References

2006 novels Black comedy books French-language novels Fiction about suicide French novels adapted into films Éditions Julliard books {{2000s-sf-novel-stub

Synopsis

Film

Reception

English translation

See also

References