# Most Depressing Goddam Books EVER. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191 "2004-05-20T14:43:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/21 "2004-05-20T15:57:54Z")
**Looking for Mr. Goodbar** by Judith Rossen. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/22 "2004-05-20T15:58:49Z")
> [@Glassy](#): > > From what I recall \*Tess of the D’Urbervilles \* was relentlessly depressing. Omigod, yes, and **Jude the Obscure** , which a constantly-depressed friend sent to me. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/23 "2004-05-20T15:59:58Z")
_ **By the Color of our Skin** _ - yes, everyone in the world hates me and there’s nothing I can do about it. I never got over that one. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/24 "2004-05-20T16:01:13Z")
Heh, I was wondering why it was taking so long for Thomas Hardy to come up in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/25 "2004-05-20T16:05:40Z")
\*\*On The Beach \*\* by Nevil Shute. I hated that book. They just _gave up_! So the world was a radioactive ball. Big deal. Always go down fighting! So depressing… ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/26 "2004-05-20T16:09:37Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#): > > **The Getaway** :…end up trapped in a living hell that makes prison seem comparitively attractive. Hoo boy, is _that_ an understatement. _The Getaway_ has one of the most chilling denouements I’ve ever encountered. You never think about barbecue in quite the same way again. I love the ending of James M. Cain’s _Double Indemnity_, too…again, much more bleak and surreal than the one in the movie. Jean Rhys’ early novel _Quartet_ is another delightful dip into despair. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/27 "2004-05-20T16:20:46Z")
My list… **To Build a Fire** by Jack London: Stupid, stupid man ignores all advice, does stupid things, kills his dog and then dies. Ok, so this book made me more mad than depressed, but if I was the sentimental type I’d be depressed by it. **The Hunchback of Notre Dame** by Victor Hugo: Everyone lives a depressing life and then they all die. This one really depressed me. How the hell the ever made a Disney film from it is beyond me. **A Simple Plan** by Scott B. Smith: Like Ellen Cherry said, you just feel sick and bleah the whole time you’re reading it, but it’s really an engrossing book. ---
**Author:** ![Treviathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/28 "2004-05-20T16:30:36Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Goldman has pretty much mastered the technique of making you care about his characters and then doing horrible things to them. That’s exactly how I would describe Rohinton Mistry’s **A Fine Balance** , about four characters trying to survive under Indira Gandhi’s suspension of the Indian constitution. That book really slammed home the hopelessness that must come with living in absolute poverty. ---
**Author:** ![yellowcakesolid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cdc98d/32.png) [@yellowcakesolid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowcakesolid)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/29 "2004-05-20T16:34:44Z")
Here’s my summary of Dostoevsky’s the Idiot: Absolutely nothing works out in the end. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/30 "2004-05-20T16:36:47Z")
**Catch-22** depressed me. Yes, I know the end isn’t very depressing, but the hundred pages leading up to it are. **Hamlet**. C’mon, how has this not been mentioned yet? ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/31 "2004-05-20T16:37:05Z")
_Titan_ by Stephen Baxter is by far the grimmest science fiction book I have ever read. It’s the year after tomorrow. A Shuttle is lost on landing (you didn’t have to be a psychic to see that coming, but still . . .) throwing the space program into a crisis of faith and funding from which it cannot recover. American society is descending into an all-too-believable new dark age. A handful of misfit adventurers embark on a dangerous, underfunded mission to the eponymous frigid moon of Saturn that might lead to the greatest scientific discovery in human history—but then again, it might not, and even if it does, there is no way for them to return home, and no way for them to survive more than a few weeks or months on Titan. It depresses me just thinking about it, especially after Columbia. I am currently reading a collection of short stories called _CivilWarLand in Bad Decline_, by George Saunders. You may know his work from _This American Life_, which featured “The 400 Pound CEO” and “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz.” Well, those are the two cheeriest stories in the book. Gruesome deaths, crippling guilt, and the anguished undead. Fun for the whole family. ---
**Author:** ![jeevwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@jeevwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevwoman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/32 "2004-05-20T16:41:51Z")
> [@Treviathan](#): > > That’s exactly how I would describe Rohinton Mistry’s **A Fine Balance** , about four characters trying to survive under Indira Gandhi’s suspension of the Indian constitution. That book really slammed home the hopelessness that must come with living in absolute poverty. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. Hands down, \*\*A Fine Balance \*\* is the most depressing book I have ever read. Thomas Hardy’s stuff is downright giddy in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/33 "2004-05-20T16:44:23Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > Hoo boy, is _that_ an understatement. _The Getaway_ has one of the most chilling denouements I’ve ever encountered. You never think about barbecue in quite the same way again. I don’t even wanna _know_ . . . The only reason I don’t want to see a remake of _Double Indemnity_, following the Cain book more closely, is because you’ll never get anyone to play Phyllis Dietrichson like Barbara Stanwyck did. Can you imagine her in an uncensored version? ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/34 "2004-05-20T16:46:45Z")
Hubert Selby Jr.'s **Requiem for a Dream** is pretty depressing (though excellent), as are Orwell’s **Burmese Days** and **1984**. Heinlein’s **Stranger in a Strange Land** depressed me as well (made me angry too), because it had potential…until it degenerated into a mish-mash of stupid philosophy and whatnot. Another vote for Hardy’s **Jude the Obscure** as well. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/35 "2004-05-20T17:00:58Z")
**The Unbearable Lightness of Being** was unrelievedly depressing. Even the end was just awful. I actually threw the book across the room after I finished reading it. It’s one of the few books I’ve given away willingly. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/36 "2004-05-20T17:03:12Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > My list… > **To Build a Fire** by Jack London: Stupid, stupid man ignores all advice, does stupid things, kills his dog and then dies. Ok, so this book made me more mad than depressed, but if I was the sentimental type I’d be depressed by it… IIRC The dog lives. The story ends with the man dying, the dog realising he’s dead and heading off to camp. He does try to kill the dog He remembers hearing about cuting open a cow and crawling in for warmth. He decides to kill the dog, cut it open, and stick his hands inside to thaw them. When he finally manages to get ahold of the dog, he realizes his hands are too numb to kill it, or use a knife to gut it. He lets it go. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/37 "2004-05-20T17:11:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Satan- His Psychotherapy And Cure By Dr Sy Kasller JSPS > > With a title like that, I expected comedy. Instead, in the first ten pages Sy manages to enrage his father to the point of cardiac trauma. Sy was simply trying to finally get to know his dad. It goes on like that for the whole book. Every time something good happens to Kassler, it’s followed by something horrific. I can’t give examples without spoiling the book. But (and none of these events happen in the story.) it goes something like this- 'Hmm. I’m homeless, jobless and unloved. I may as well spend my last dollar on this lottery ticket. I won a hundred million dollars! And look, it’s Sarah, the girl I’ve secretly loved for years but never had the guts to approach. Sarah, will you marry me? Yes! Great, let’s walk to city hall. . . . What? Hospital? Car accident? Sarah took the ticket? And she’s marrying you, doctor? Why? You amputated my penis and attached it to your own? ’ > > It’s a well-written book and there are numerous references to Dante’s Inferno (I’ve considered finally reading Inferno just to get more insight into this book). But it’s massively depressing. I just wanna note that there is no “Sy Kassler”. This book is by Jeremy Levin, who also wrote the book and screenplay for **Creator** , which I’ve praised in another thread. The book is depressing, and the movie isn’t (surprise!). I don’t usually like depressing books, but Levin writes with wit, knowledge of science and scientists, and puts in racy situations. I’m not a big fan of downers, but I do like the writing of C.S. Forester, and I have to point out that, aside from his Horatio Hornblower books, most of his books have pretty damned depressing endings, including **The African Queen** and **The Gun** , both of which got facelifts when they were translated to film. In fact, based on most of the entries here, virtually all of the depressing books had their contrents altered to be, if not downright happy, at least not as depressing when they were adapted to celluloid. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/38 "2004-05-20T17:17:01Z")
I’ll third _A Simple Plan_. Although, the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking of ways I would have just taken the loot and split. Nobody mentioned _Bringing Out The Dead_ yet. It wasn’t a bad book, but it was an exhausting read. And, of course, terribly depresssing. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/39 "2004-05-20T17:18:46Z")
**All Quiet on the Western Front**. Not _too_ traumatic to read in grade 9. :eek: **The Front Runner.** A touching gay romance that ends with the beautiful athlete getting shot dead at the Montreal Olympics. ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/40 "2004-05-20T17:25:58Z")
**The Bluest Eye** by Toni Morrison [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191.md?page=3)