Discourses of men's suicide notes explores men's suicide notes from a discursive perspective drawing on rich data of authentic notes from the Polish Corpus of Suicide Notes of 2008. While the first chapter discusses pivoting concepts such as fatherhood and masculinity and the author's stance on the issue of suicide (often in marked contrast to that of sociologists and suicidologists), the analysis chapters are wisely organized in chronological order following what the author contends is the process of committing suicide—that is, how these men reflect on their past (chs. 2 and 3), their present (chs. 4 to 6), and the future after their suicide (chs. 7 and 8)—to then offer concluding remarks in ch. 9. Interestingly, the book shows that the temporal shifts found in the notes suggest that the act of suicide begins before these men take their own life (ch. 6); at the same time the very act signals the beginning of a new life for them, as promises of eternal love and of visiting the living are made in what is interpreted as an attempt to cling to the new reality after their death and a display of a sense of ‘non-finality of suicide’ (ch. 7).

Departing from the view that suicide notes are social texts that fulfill a social purpose, Galasiński shows how these men construct representations of themselves and their addressees, especially attending to social expectations of masculine behavior (consider suicide as a courageous act in ch. 5), while providing explanations for what were found to be rational (as opposed to emotional) reasons for taking their own life (chs. 2 and 3). Moreover, the book shows how the dominant discourses of men's suicide notes revolve around their concerns for the stigmatization involved in committing suicide and their self image (ch. 4) as well as others (e.g. display of solidarity towards addressees in ch. 6). In this light, Galasiński convincingly argues that suicide robs these men of their masculinity and fatherhood, and that these notes are the last opportunity they have to build a more positively regarded self, one in which suicide is constructed as a gift to those left behind (ch. 2). The suicide note, the author continues to argue, further provides the appropriate social space for the writer to reposition themselves by leaving instructions for their addressees after their departure as their last attempt to wield power over them (ch. 8).

A couple of contributions this book makes are worth highlighting, albeit briefly. First, while the ‘suicidal process’ (from suicide ideation stages to committing suicide) is widely discussed by suicidologists and sociologists, a valuable point made in this book is the idea that there may be a suicidal process within the act itself. Second, although the content analysis very often provided throughout the chapters supports thought-provoking interpretations of the notes, valuable insights are gained when more fine-grained linguistic analyses are presented (e.g. distancing strategies towards suicide in ch. 4). Certainly, this book is a good read for those who are beginning to dive into the depths of discourses of suicide.