And still I would read it again, much like I would have with Tuesdays with Morrie, The Painted Veil, and all the other books that wash this somber feeling over me once I'm through. Sometimes I just need to submerge myself into a sad story and cry until the tears over the character's plight mix in with the sadness in my own life. Before I know it, I cry for them, for myself, for this fantasy that's made me feel for something so unattached to me - compassion for people who don't even exist.
I felt the same as a child reading Where the Red Fern Grows and A Summer to Die and then decades later with The Road. It's slightly crazy, but I like getting wrapped up in this fictional suffering because it reminds me that yes, I still care, that I'm not yet jaded, that I haven't slipped back into the emotionless void I once knew, that I do possess this immense ability to feel and love. Sometimes it's to my detriment and only leads to more pain, but I will probably always let my heart weigh in on my decisions. It's too much a part of my being to completely remove it from the operating table no matter how much it might cloud judgment.
What have been your favorite sad stories? Hit me as I'm sure I'll be craving some more masochism soon enough. Last year, Flavorwire rounded up 10 devastatingly sad books and I've read that Flowers for Algernon could very well send me to an early grave.
Image: en.wikipedia.org
I had no idea how sad this book would be when I read it! I usually try to avoid sad books, but I love music that my daughter says is depressing. Music that is slow and deep, like Rick Peller's Consolation or Satie's Gymnopedie.
ReplyDeleteFunny, I know exactly how you feel. I love sad books and films. They make good outlets for my own sadness. I cried a lot from Tolstoy's books because his characters were realer than real, so when something happened it was like a good friend. I cried that I wasted my time on Shantaram, haha. I might've cried during The Glass House. I cried so hard during Into Thin Air, when the climber on Mt. Everest was trapped at the top and had to radio down and say goodbye to his family.
ReplyDeleteI watched The Time Traveler's Wife over the weekend! I didn't know it was based on a book, so now I'll have to read the book to compare the two. Some of the 10 books in the link you gave look very interesting (for those moments when a sad book is what you need).
ReplyDeleteThe book was really good. A little confusing to follow at the very beginning, but it reads quickly because you want to just know what happens next. Did you like the movie?
DeleteLoved this book! Read Fall on your Knees - awesome saga. Flowers for Algernon was so good - do it :)
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll get it for my Kindle as soon as I get the chance.
DeleteDorkys, I read this post title in my RSS feed list and I immediately thought of "The Time Traveler's Wife" before I even opened the post! I do not love sad books, in fact I read books to escape life's "downers," but I really loved this book.
ReplyDeleteI rarely read sad fiction, but I have read "Islands in the Stream" by Hemmingway.
ReplyDeleteThe last line in the book, "You never understand anybody that loves you."