One Friday in April

"A . . . memoir that offers a new understanding of suicide as a distinct mental illness. As the sun lowered in the sky one Friday afternoon in April 2006, . . . author Donald Antrim found himself on the roof of his Brooklyn apartment building, afraid for his life. In this . . . memoir, Antrim vividly recounts what led him to the roof and what happened after he came back down: two hospitalizations, weeks of fruitless clinical trials, the terror of submitting to ECT--and the saving call from David Foster Wallace that convinced him to try it--as well as years of fitful recovery and setback . . . reframes suicide--whether in thought or action--as an illness in its own right, a unique consequence of trauma and personal isolation, rather than the choice of a depressed person"--Provided by publisher.