# So What Stories Or Books Make You Cry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353 "2003-09-13T05:08:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Catsmeow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Catsmeow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catsmeow)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/21 "2003-09-14T15:46:23Z")
I have to add a vote for \*\* Where the Red Fern Grows \*\* and add a sweet story called \*\* Desser: The Best Ever Cat \*\* by Maggie Smith. ---
**Author:** ![fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzygoodmakefeelnice)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/22 "2003-09-14T17:40:38Z")
_To Kill a Mockingbird_ and _East of Eden_. I also usually cry when I read _Return of the King_, but then I’m a geek. ---
**Author:** ![Zazie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Zazie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zazie)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/23 "2003-09-14T20:44:44Z")
Of mice and men, is the only book that ever made me cry. ---
**Author:** ![Ooner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Ooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ooner)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/24 "2003-09-14T21:05:05Z")
“The Perks of Being A Wallflower” made me cry. ---
**Author:** ![Rainbowthief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Rainbowthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rainbowthief)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/25 "2003-09-14T23:08:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ZipperJJ \* > **Wow is it only children’s stories that make us cry? 🙂** Yes! My wife and I bawled uncontrollably after reading **The Cat Who Went to Heaven** by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It’s a Buddhist children’s book, but I would _never_ read it to a child. ---
**Author:** ![heimarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c2a13f/32.png) [@heimarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heimarkj)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/26 "2003-09-14T23:10:50Z")
cold mountain ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/27 "2003-09-14T23:26:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fizzygoodmakefeelnice \* > \*\*I also usually cry when I read _Return of the King_, but then I’m a geek. \*\* If you’re a geek, then so am I…oh, wait, I _am_ a geek. Sorry. 😉 But I always cry at the end of _Return of the King._ Actually, at the end of _The Two Towers,_ too – I won’t say more because the part in question’s been bumped up into RotK for the films. The ending of _Les Miserables_ always gets me, too… ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/28 "2003-09-15T00:27:45Z")
First, the last chapters of “The Once & Future King”. The penultimate chapter ends with a letter to Lancelot from Gawaine telling him the Queen is beseiged. He drops the letter to mount the rescue expedition & Bors picks it up: –“And at this date my letter was written, but two hours and a half afore my death, written with mine own hand, and so subscribed with part of my heart’s blood. --Gawaine of Orkney” –He spelled the name out twice, and tapped his teeth. Gawaine. “I suppose,” he said out loud, doubtfully “they would have pronounced it Cuchullain in the North? You can’t tell with ancient languages.” The last chapter is Arthur’s conversation with young Thomas of Warwick before the last battle. Lerner & Lowe made 3/4 of the book into “Camelot” & Disney animated the first quarter. It’s too bad nobody has made a movie (or movies) of T H White’s version of the old, old story. Second, a more modern tale: “Now Playing At Canterbury” by Vance Bourjaily. The novel is about the production of a modern opera to open a performance hall in a midwestern university in the 1970’s. It includes faculty, students, townies & outsiders brought in for the production. Oh, & each chapters includes a story told by one of the characters. In the last chapter, after the production’s over, Henry Fenellon tells Billy (Big Ears) Hoffman how Mona Shapen was killed in Hanoi. Read it yourself if you can find it. Another fine book, another story that should be told. Or told again. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/29 "2003-09-15T00:31:56Z")
I have cried when reading The Brother’s Karamazov (Father Zoysima’s speech), Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, (Oh Hester, you died so bravely…) and Mark Helprin’s A Soldier of the Great War . ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/30 "2003-09-15T01:11:29Z")
Oh, and Flowers for Algernon. Waaaaaah! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/31 "2003-09-15T01:30:14Z")
**Night** by Elie Wiesel. [spoiler] When Elie and his father are being marched by the nazi’s nonstop from their concentration camp. No winter clothes. No food. No water. It’s winter. Barely any rest, those that fall asleep die. And the part that gets me is _they are grateful_ when they arrive at Buchenwald ( or Dachau). I bawled my eyes out .[/spoiler] **Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire** In the Tri Wizarding Tourney, when Harry is holding off Voldemort with his wand and all the dead from his life are coming out of the end of his wand…and then he sees his parents come out… I lose it every time. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/32 "2003-09-15T02:29:36Z")
A Prayer For Owen Meaney ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/33 "2003-09-15T04:25:00Z")
_The Wind in the Willows_, by Kenneth Grahame. Especially Chapter 7: The Piper At the Gates of Dawn. You can read the entire book online (but you miss the illustrations, which is really a shame. Go buy a copy, dammit. But, to tide you over . . .[The Piper At the Gates of Dawn](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=GraWind.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=7&division=div1) your humble TubaDiva Any resemblance to Toad is purely coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/34 "2003-09-15T04:35:04Z")
I can’t believe I forgot about the Anne Shirley series. It sounds like a small thing, but I always cry when Leslie gives Anne the cold shoulder in _House Of Dreams_ because she’s jealous of her baby. Maybe because I know how it’s like to feel that envious. The part in _Anne of Ingleside_ where Jem feels guilty because he didn’t realize the pearl necklace he gave to Anne wasn’t real always gets me, too. Every single time. And I read those books once a year, every year. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/35 "2003-09-15T04:47:03Z")
Yet another vote for **Where the Red Fern Grows**. Read in the 6th grade, and it absolutely destroyed me. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/36 "2003-09-15T05:25:02Z")
I’m a little surprised at how many of these are children’s books. Early scarring of the American psyche, I guess. 🙂 And how could I forget _A Prayer For Owen Meany_? _“Oh, God! Please give him back! I shall keep asking you.”_ Sniff. ---
**Author:** ![nefertari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@nefertari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nefertari)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/37 "2003-09-15T10:41:24Z")
Another hand up for LOTR. When Frodo and Sam are struggling toward Mt Doom and…they think they’re going to die but they go anyway…\ ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/38 "2003-09-15T13:43:09Z")
A short story by James Herriot, I think it’s titled _A Christmas Kitten_? Very sad. Tears. Tears too in the final book of _His Dark Materials_–\> Iorek’s farewell. I _loved_ Iorek. Again, more tears. Snicks ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/39 "2003-09-15T14:42:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > \*\ ***Night** by Elie Wiesel. > > [spoiler] > > When Elie and his father are being marched by the nazi’s nonstop from their concentration camp. No winter clothes. No food. No water. It’s winter. Barely any rest, those that fall asleep die. > > And the part that gets me is _they are grateful_ when they arrive at Buchenwald ( or Dachau). > > I bawled my eyes out .[/spoiler] I’ll second Night – I remember that affecting me terribly on many levels – made all the worse by the stark truth that it is. I’m an old softie, so I don’t know how much my vote on anything counts. However, \*Grave of Fireflies[/] is one of the most gut-wrenching bawl my eyes out moments I can remember having while watching a movie. And I honestly think I’m going to make it everytime until: Sato prepares the little girl for creamation and lights the funeral pyre – I shudder and cry uncontrollably every time. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353/40 "2003-09-15T14:50:35Z")
I’d second “Night” as being one of the saddest books I ever read, and I’d like to add Miron Dolot’s “Execution by Hunger,” which is about the Ukrainian famine of the early 30’s. The scenes of the family’s often futile attempts to help their starving neighbors and the devastation inflicted by the Russians as they try to destroy Ukrainian culture are almost unbearable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-stories-or-books-make-you-cry/201353.md?page=3)