[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Flanders by Patricia Anthony. I’m pretty sure a Doper recommended it – koeeoaddi, maybe? It’s one of those books that you’d like to recommend but you hesitate, because it’s such a downer.
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Pretty sure it was me, because I also came into this thread to mention it. It’s just beautiful–I stayed up all night the first time I read it–but man, it hurts.
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus]
Throw in some suicide, time in an asylum and AIDS and you’ve got yourself one big laugh-a-minute.
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It’s the feel-suicidal hit of the summer!
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
It’s the feel-suicidal hit of the summer!
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Quite. That book has the honour of being the only one to ever make me cry.
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry. Crushing poverty, dictatorial abuse of the masses, mutilation, inequity, and tragic deaths, all in one convenient bundle!
[QUOTE=Tijuana_Golds]
Things Fall Apart - This one is sadder on the second read.
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I came in here to mention this book. It’s sad in a “this actually happens to people all of the time” kind of way, which is even sadder than the Johnny Get Your Gun kind of “wouldn’t it suck if THAT happened? Holy crap!” way.
I figured some one would have mentioned it by now, but other than The Virgin Suicides I’d go with Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra.
One of my fave books of all-time is, “The Testimony Of Daniel Pagels” by Vickery Turner. Part of the plot-line may be far-fetched from a purely scientific pov, but it doesn’t make it any less entertaining a read, imo.
Anything by Margaret Atwood. Her writing haunts me, but she writes so believably I can’t stop reading. I don’t think she writes men well (at least what I’ve read so far) but the female characters’ emotions and reactions are stunningly realistic to me. It’s like I’m reading about myself in an alternate timeline, and I just can’t put it down.
*In Cold Blood **was is one of the two books in my life (and I have read thousands) that was so enthralling that I could not put it down, but throughout I so wanted to because of the depressing factor. The only other book that I could not put down was The Princess Bride (no depressing factor there well, I guess when he…no never mind, I won’t bring that up).
[QUOTE=Bill Door]
I’m reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So far it is relentlessly depressing, but so brilliantly written that I can’t stop reading it for long.
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I have a prediction about this book. In 10 years or so, when McCarthy is either dead or universally acknowledged to belong on reading lists, this is his book that the kids in American Lit are going to do, both high school and college: (1) it’s short enough to fit on a syllabus; (2) it’s post-apocalyptic (kids love this); (3) it’s got a quasi-environmental message; (4) it’s a coming-of-age/young people focus book; and (5) it drips essay questions like: “Is there a God? How are age/fear/morality related? Are the old too jaded to trust?.” School Gold.
1st McCarthy I read was Blood Meridian, then Suttree and then The Road–all making our list here. Was shocked when I got to All the Pretty Horses and it wasn’t a total downer. (Not rainbows and lollipops, but still…)
Novels don’t generally do that to me(with the notable exception of Les Miserables, damn you Victor Hugo!). I have a pretty good sense of fiction, even historical fiction. The ones which do it to me are the autobiographical or biographical ones. The Diary of Anne Frank is a good example. Many biographies of Native Americans affect me the same way.
Enjoy,
Steven
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer is good, in that “I want to beat someone up because of this” sort of way. Yes, it’s biased - the author pretty clearly has an agenda, and he’s giving you only one side - but it makes you think. And makes you mad. And then makes you depressed.