# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![luluBahrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e5b9ba/32.png) [@luluBahrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luluBahrain)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/61 "2004-05-20T21:28:59Z")
I have to agree with **Rabid Child** about **The Long Walk**. It is my most favorite book ever but I cannot read it very often. It just haunts me because I could actually see something like that happening. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/62 "2004-05-20T21:55:02Z")
I’ll have to nominate **Geek Love** , by Katherine Dunn. from Amazon: > [@](#): > > Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out–with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes–to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious–and dangerous–asset. > > As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same. I have a pretty high tolerance for outre literature, but this is the kind of book that really makes you want to scrub all the skin off your body after you finish. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/63 "2004-05-20T22:07:15Z")
I’ll nominate **Ethan Frome** by Edith Wharton. Long sad story about a guy named Ethan Frome who is in a loveless relationship with a hypochrondriac. He then falls in love with her teenage cousin, and they try to commit suicide by, and I am NOT making this up, crashing a sled into a tree. Ethan ends up crippled, and the teenage girl is paralyzed. Unlike most of the other books mentioned in this thread, I can’t recommend this ass splotch of a book. I’m never going to touch it again, and I’m making it my life’s purpose to completely destroy any memory of this book. I would rather stick my privates in a vise than even look at the cover of this book again. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/64 "2004-05-20T22:07:58Z")
_A Prayer for Owen Meany_ - John Irving You know the poor kid is doomed from the first page and yet you are compelled to suffer along with him. Now that I think about, **everything** by Irving is depressing. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/65 "2004-05-20T22:13:03Z")
I’ll second **Wuthering Heights** , which depressed me so badly I couldn’t finish it, and add: **The Partner** - John Grisham **Ceremony of the Innocent** - Taylor Caldwell & **The Age of Innocence** - Edith Wharton ---
**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, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/66 "2004-05-20T22:26:29Z")
> [@The Man With The Golden Gun](#): > > I’ll nominate **Ethan Frome** by Edith Wharton… > > Unlike most of the other books mentioned in this thread, I can’t recommend this ass splotch of a book. I’m never going to touch it again, and I’m making it my life’s purpose to completely destroy any memory of this book. I would rather stick my privates in a vise than even look at the cover of this book again. Ugh! This one is the worst! We had to read it junior year of high school. Everyone hated it and our teacher couldn’t understand why. I haven’t even thought of it in years. I believe I _had_ completely destroyed any memory of the book until you mentioned it. It might be the most awful book I had to read. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/67 "2004-05-20T22:37:47Z")
> [@wmulax93](#): > > **Hamlet**. C’mon, how has this not been mentioned yet? _King Lear_ is tons more depressing, though. (I love it anyway.) Wilfred Owen’s poetry is relentlessly bleak, though I love that too – really, anything to do with World War I is incredibly depressing. Oh, and count me into the _Ethan Frome_-hating club. I loathed that book with a passion. ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/68 "2004-05-20T22:53:28Z")
Thank you **Colibri** - I’ve been trying to remember the name of that book forever. Ick, ick and more ick. I found _War and Peace_ to be moderately depressing, aside from the annoying fact that it just ends, no resolution or anything. _Anna Karenina_ is deeply depressing at the end. It’s practically a one-liner about the fate of the daughter, but it’s awful. **matt\_mcl** I remember reading that in junior high as well. Nice, no? Don’t get me started on _Bridge to Terabithia_ **Eve** , have you ever read _Civilization_ by Paul Quarrington? I suspect you might find it interesting… ---
**Author:** ![Graycat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Graycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graycat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/69 "2004-05-20T23:16:57Z")
I’ll second both of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson, but I found his Gap series even more depressing; I only made it through the first two and have no idea how low things got by the end. I also found most things by Vonnegut pretty darned depressing; but for some reason I kept reading them. And so it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/70 "2004-05-20T23:21:59Z")
The World According to Garp was a pretty damn despressing read. It ended on such a down note. Marc ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/71 "2004-05-20T23:31:04Z")
can’t believe I’m the first to mention Dalton Trumbo’s JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN (tho the movie is even more depressing- at least at the end of the book, he had a dream! Oh btw, an album pf classic radio broadcasts I got has a 1940s James Cagney dramatization of it- Wow!) ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/72 "2004-05-21T00:00:56Z")
The Lovely Bones made me weep continuously. Second Silenos for On the Beach. That one really blew me away when I was a teen-ager growing up in the seventies. The movie was a killer too with, I think, Fred Astair, if you can believe it. But I actually liked Anna Kerenina and War and Peace (maybe because I read this one while on vacation on Maui, am I a nerd or what?). My favorite part about W & P is Tolstoy’s description of battle which basically describes the butterfly theory of chaos. Did any one else notice that? ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/73 "2004-05-21T00:13:19Z")
Oh and I forgot; why oh, why did they make us read “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles in high school? That and “Ethan Fromme” and “Great Expectations” put me off on “LITERATURE” for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/74 "2004-05-21T00:45:16Z")
Postcards by Annie Proulx. Pass the hemlock, please. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/75 "2004-05-21T01:11:42Z")
Almost forgot: The Sweet Hereafter. My son read it for school and walked around looking shell shocked for an entire weekend. ---
**Author:** ![snermy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@snermy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snermy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/76 "2004-05-21T01:40:24Z")
[The Dwarf](http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-0374521352-1) Par Lagerkvist Ick ick ick. Powerful, but with a nasty taste to it. Left it half convinced that all people everywhere are just evil and sordid and small. You’ve heard the saying ‘power corrupts’? This is more ‘people are corrupt, period. Everyone’s a puerile torturer at heart, and what separates the idly murderous despot from the kiddies pulling wings off flies is only their amount of power’. And then of course there’s the Plague because it’s just not depressing enough without seeping buboes everywhere. Read it almost 20 years ago and it’s still the most visceral reaction I’ve ever had to a book. ---
**Author:** ![snermy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@snermy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snermy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/77 "2004-05-21T01:52:42Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > 1.The Book of Sorrows By Kurt Wagner > This is a sequel to “The Book of the Dun Cow” if you liked this book my advice to you is avoid “The Book of Sorrows” like the plague. [SNIPPED] > Actually, there was one book I read that was even more depressing than “The Book of Sorrows”. I don’t remember the title, but it was a book of short fantasy > stories about Native Americans. OH yes. Book of Sorrows made me bawl. The short stories sounds like Ursula Leguin’s **Buffalo Gals**. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/78 "2004-05-21T01:56:21Z")
I haven’t read any of the detective novels or classics, but I can vouch for the depressing nature of _Burmese Days, Catch-22_ and _A Prayer for Owen Meany_, and add _At Swim, Two Boys_. Has anyone else read the latter? One of the saddest endings I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/79 "2004-05-21T02:01:58Z")
I cast a fifth vote for _Jude the Obscure_. First you read it, then you jump off a bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191/80 "2004-05-21T04:20:33Z")
_The Mysterious Stranger_ by Mark Twain. The world is inherently irrational and the only way to be happy is to be completely insane. Great… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-goddam-books-ever/246191.md?page=5)