Ichthyology

A father's quiet collapse in the Alaskan waters leaves a lasting ruin, observed through the glass of a childhood aquarium.

In semiautobiographical stories set largely in David Vann's native Alaska, Legend of a Suicide follows Roy Fenn from his birth on an island at the edge of the Bering Sea to his return thirty years later to confront the turbulent emotions and complex legacy of his father's suicide.

Vann charts the unraveling of a family across the waters of Adak and Ketchikan, recording the reckless failures and mounting isolation that lead toward an inevitable collapse.

The collection balances that northern ruin against a quiet California boyhood, examining the predatory instincts and fragile domestic rituals that shape a child's understanding of survival.
Coming of Age: Tasked with subduing flopping halibut with a hammer on the blood-slick deck of a family boat, a young Roy confronts the cold mechanics of mortality long before his father's death.Family Life: Ill-fated nautical dreams begin with a father launching a cabin cruiser without drain plugs and culminate in an impulsive commercial venture aboard the sixty-three-foot Osprey.Small Town Setting: Wandering through the rain-soaked streets of Ketchikan in his pajamas, a neglected boy lets himself into a dark, unlocked kitchen just to feed pickle slices to a stranger's humming fish tank.Also by This Author: Caribou Island, Goat Mountain and Dirt.