Customer Reviews

Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival

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This is a moving account of Mr. Lukas' family experiences with depression. What is most interesting is that he is coming out of a generation where treatment for mental illness was primitive and not very effective. His losses because of that tragic fact are at times overwhelming. When I reached the end of the book I felt that it was a miracle that Mr. Lukas was still alive considering the history he has lived through! I wanted to say to him, "You are extraordinary and accepted and valued exactly for who you are!" His examination has a flavor of psychoanalysis - how have events played themselves out in relationship to his earliest experiences as a boy. Overall, a moving picture of one man's attempt to understand his family relationships.

Being a survivor in a family where multiple members committed suicide, I could relate to exactly what this brave author, Christopher Lukas, details in his memoir, Blue Genes. And I, like Christopher Lukas, was mislead initially as to the cause of and history behind my parent's suicide, forcing me to grieve over the loss twice - once after it first occurred, and later in life when I finally learned that the death was a chosen, intentional one. Lukas brilliantly describes the anger, the guilt and the sadness behind such a loss.... the feeling of utter abandonment and loneliness that survivors of suicide must face. I especially liked the parallels he drew between the way he dealt with the loss, versus the way his brother dealt with it.

While the emotions that ruled Blue Genes were utterly real and raw, I felt that the story was told by Lukas in an overly-factual manner. Robotic even. At times I felt as if I were trudging through this memoir. For a much more spell-binding read, try Loss and Found by Karen Flyer. This memoir, also about the after-effects of the suicide of a parent, and the ramifications on a young child's emotional, psychological and physical development, reads much more like a novel - like a story that propels you forward versus dragging you along.

Both of these books are must-reads for anyone who has been forced to live on in the wake of a suicide. Raw, emotional and real.

Christopher Lukas grew up in a family where most of the members die by suicide. He and his brother were 6 and 8, respectively, when their mother killed herself. This memoir is particularly about his brother, who committed suicide late in life, and himself, the survivor. Why has he survived depression, while so many in his family have not?

Lukas has clearly spent much of his life pondering his circumstances. His writing is lucid, self examining, and clear. Some reviewers had trouble relating to the characters in this book. While my own family experienced nothing like the events described, I found it easy to put myself in the point of view of Lukas and his brother. I came away with a deeper understanding of the difficulties faced by the family when a loved one ends his own life.

Lukas' ultimate question in this book is: Why has he survived when his brother could not? I was fully engaged by this book and its examination of this question. And then I read the final chapter, wherein Lukas gives much credit for his better ability to cope to his, now deceased, wife. Why is so little attention given to her role until the last two pages? Does Lukas really feel this way? Or, was this an afterthought in the wake of her death?

Still, with this as its only flaw, I still highly recommend this book. The insights are valuable and the writing is profound.

The story of Christopher Lukas and his brother, award-winning journalist J. Anthony Lukas, is a chronicle of mental health medicine's evolution in the 20th century. Their family is struck again and again by bipolar disorder, a disease not yet understood or properly treated until late in the century. Unfortunately, the repercussions from misdiagnosis and lack of proper treatment echo through the lives of these brothers with shattering immediacy, starting with the suicide of their mother when the boys were only eight and six years old. Through the years one after another family member succumbs to the disease, ending finally with the suicide of Tony, the story that begins the memoir. The tragedy is in the sheer magnitude of the toll it takes on the family, but Mr. Lukas tells it not only as a memorial to what the he and his brother went through, but as a testament to the fact that, despite it all, he survived.

After relating the account of his family's origins beginning with his great-grandparents, Lukas chronicles the heartbreaking story of his mother's death, and how the boys were immediately shipped off to boarding school with no explanation for their mother's disappearance or chance to say good-bye. This forced delay of grieving was to influence and haunt both men throughout their lives, an added burden to their already confusing personal battles with depression and bipolar disorder. Sadly, in the end it proved a burden too heavy for Tony.

While interesting and thoroughly well-written, this book is a difficult read, mainly due to the pervasive sadness that permeates this family's history. Mr. Lukas does an excellent job of conveying the struggle the boys underwent throughout their lives, but he pays scant attention to the good moments he has enjoyed through the years, flying by his wife and daughter's impact on his health and well-being. Ultimately, Lukas triumphs in the story, but his victory seems almost Pyrrhic - a survivor alone, among the ashes.

Any reader of Blue Genes will learn about the power of family dynamics, biological contributions to one'e destiny, the helpful role of good psychotherapy, the importance of sharing one's thoughts (as the author has shared himself with the reader) and not keeping secrets, the role of work and love in getting through and enjoying life, and the possibility of triumphing over tremendous psychological and biological obstacles.

As I was reading this book I was thinking about these lyrics from a song by Bob Dylan.

This is a book about death.

Or is it a book about life?

Christopher Lukas has written "a memoir of loss and survival".

Indeed. So I guess it's about both death and life. And the shadows that death casts over the living...

In the aftermath of the suicide of his brother (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist J. Anthony Lukas), the author chronicles a family history that also includes the suicides of his grandmother, mother and uncle, the alcoholism and depression of his father, and ultimately the death of his wife to whom the book is dedicated.

It's about abandonment, loss, guilt, and the pain of being left behind. And about dark secrets, things unspoken but undeniable, brokenness, depression, and yes, death.

Other reviewers have noted that the book and its characters are difficult to connect with. This is to some extent true. As Lukas writes, "The first thing that occurs when a person gets fatal news is emotional shock, blocking out the catastrophic events and feelings". It seems to me that the author's trauma is so great that his survival has required him to somehow remain at a distance, and this can be unnerving for the reader.

Anyway, I give it a conditional recommendation. The perspective it provides of a human condition bereft of the warmth that most consider "normal" is valuable and instructive.

One caution: don't confuse this book with the similarly titled Blue Genes by Paul Meier. That one just stinks.

Contrary to the title of this book, depression and suicide are not genetic.

On the contrary, depression is genetic. I know from experience.

I loved this touching, sad yet hopeful book

To the world, the Lukas brothers appeared successful and accomplished. Older brother Tony was a Harvard graduate, a NY Times journalist, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. The author Christopher, or Kit as he is know, is an actor, author, Emmy award winning TV producer, husband and father.
But when Kit received that call one night that his brother had killed himself, while terribly upset, he was hardly surprised. It appeared to be just one more example of a terrible family legacy of mental illness, depression and suicide.
Their mother cut her own throat when they were just boys, they watched their father decline into alcoholism, and their grandmother, their aunt and their uncle all died at their own hands.
"Blue Genes" is an attempt by Mr. Lukas to come to some understanding of this family history and especially to come to terms with his brother's death.

"I am sure that I never answered the question of why Tony killed himself to the satisfaction of my interlocutors. It was almost impossible to do so. There is a parallel question that I have been more successful answering: why I have not killed myself....
Still with full confidence, I know that I will never go into a room at the end of the day and kill myself. Too many deaths in my family, too many suicides. I will not follow suit."

The problem is, we are not really given the evidence in this book to make us totally believe this. The evidence not to fear, even for the fate of the author's daughters. Have they too inherited the family legacy?

I hope that the author accomplished what he wanted to in writing this book, in terms of coming to some sort of peace with his brother's death. But as he admits, he remains unable to explain it to us. And I hope that he is right about being lucky enough to have been blessed with the support and knowledge to enable him to escape the fate of so many in his family. The book is subtitled " A Memoir of Loss and Survival"...unfortunately, there is a great deal about the loss and not enough, except for an attempt in the four page epilogue, about the survival, to make it ultimately a hopeful book in my mind.

Late one night Christopher (Kit) Lukas received a phone call with news that his brother, the gifted journalist J. Anthony Lukas, had committed suicide. Tragically their mother also committed suicide when they were young boys. Kit and his brother were never told how she died and no one spoke of the family's history of depression and bipolar disorder. The legacy of guilt and grief haunted Kit and Tony throughout their lives.

Despite both brothers achieving remarkable success, Tony as a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, they suffered bouts of depression. Kit was able to confront his family's troubled past and find happiness but Tony remained depressed which ultimately led him to take his own life.

Being that this book was a memoir I just couldn't connect with any of the characters. It may have helped if I was familiar with Tony's writing or felt some sort of connection to the brothers but the writing just didn't pull me in. I feel this was more personal for Kit than a story that needed to be shared. I can see where the book might be helpful for anyone who has been affected by a loved one's suicide but it just didn't click for me.

This book doesn't really explain what happened in Christopher's family or why? His family has not learned how to cope with the difficulties of life.
Instead the author just blames genetics.


Contrary to the title of this book, depression and suicide are not genetic.


It is a sad book and not what I was looking for. I wanted a a book that explained how the author overcame his problems.Instead the book ends with Christopher deciding that he doesn't want to kill himself, not very helpful or inspiring.