Sunshower is the story of a journey through a human experiencesurviving the loss of a love by suicide, and the return of hope. Much has been written about why someone would take his or her life, and about the prevention of suicide, but there is little recorded to throw light on what it is like to endure such a dramatic severing. Sunshower begins with a portrait of Karen and Dick Kenyon's early marriage, the birth of their son, Richard, the birth and death of a baby daughter, Johanna. Then on November 3, 1978, Dick did not come home from work; instead, without warning, he took his own life. The author charts her grief process, her awareness, her questions and turmoil, and her eventual path back to life and love. Sunshower is a mystery story in the sense that life is a mystery. It is told through the eyes of one person, but all our struggles and joys are somehow one. We all love, we all lose. Surviving after suicide is only a dramatic metaphor for survival of any kind. Every day we live we are choosing life, creating life. Symbolically a sunshower is the union of sadness and joy, of rain clouds and of light. The sunshowers of our lives are our releases and baptisms into new life. This book, though it deals with and faces death, is most importantly about life and about love. Sunshower is the story of loss, but it is also a story of transformation and rebirth. Karen Kenyon has written a remarkably honest account in SUNSHOWER. In writing of a harrowing experience, she has avoided both self-pitying sentimentality and hidden angers. It is a valuable -- if not priceless --addition to the literature of suicide. Harold Greenwald, Ph.D. August 6, 1981 "...we do a tremendous amount of suicide prevention work and I'm sure your contribution in the form of this book will help many people."
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"I'm sure your contribution in the form of this book will help many people." -- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
About the Author
Karen Kenyon is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in various newspapers and magazines. She also teaches writing through community college in San Diego, among other places. Karen is also a freelance journalist and poet.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful book,
By Sue Diaz (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sunshower (Paperback)
On November 3, 1978, Dick Kenyon - husband, father, university employee and stained glass artist -- took his own life. That event is at the heart of Sunshower, but the book is much more than a story of a suicide. It is largely a survivor's tale, eloquently and unflinchingly told by his wife, Karen. With the grace of a poet and the insight of someone who has lived through the unthinkable, Karen Kenyon chronicles her life with Dick and the process of coming to terms with his end. In sharing this ultimately affirming story, Kenyon explores the most profound questions any of us can ask about life and love and the mystery that is every human being. I strongly recommend this beautiful book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Path Through the Darkness,
This review is from: Sunshower (Paperback)
As a psychotherapist in private practice, I am often asked to recommend a book to help someone through a "dark wood." This is such a book. Ms. Kenyon is fiercely brave in her telling of her husband's suicide and what came after. How does one survive the unthinkable, sort out enough of (for so much here is unknowable) the grief, guilt, anger, self-blame, and fear so that life is again possible for those left behind? How does anyone go on to reclaim some right place in the world and some right place in the heart for the loved one who has chosen to die? This book is filled with the quiet courage too often unacknowledged of just keeping on, of continuning to do what feels right and necessary when life is so difficult we're not sure we can stand it. Ms. Kenyon shares with us her courage, guidance, wisdom, even humor. She makes us a map of those places the ancients used to mark by saying, "Here Be Dragons." She helps us find again a world that remembers light, hope, laughter. What Elisabeth Kubler-Ross saw and recommended some years ago in SUNSHOWER is as relevant now as it was when this book was first published. My hard-back copy of this book has been loaned out again and again over the years. Nothing recent has been able to replace it. I am so glad SUNSHOWER is back in print.
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