# The most depressing book you've ever read, but was still a good book (spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070 "2012-05-25T15:33:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/41 "2012-05-25T18:18:43Z")
Mary Doria Russell’s novel [_A Thread of Grace_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0449004139), which is set in Italy towards the end of WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Dustin\_the\_Wind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f1d935/32.png) [@Dustin\_the\_Wind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dustin_the_Wind)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/42 "2012-05-25T18:35:26Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > _ **A Child Called It** _ by Dave Pelzer. As a child Pelzer suffered severe abuse at the hands of his mother. When he was finally removed from the home, authorities said it was the third worst case of documented child abuse in the state of CA. To this day it makes me shudder to think about the horrific things his mother put him through. It is very sad. I read someplace - sorry, don’t remember where - that his brother(s) claim the author made everything up. I don’t see how anyone can make that stuff up though. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/43 "2012-05-25T18:40:43Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > “Night” by Elie Wiesel. It’s not just the whole Holacaust horror - it’s seeing someone lose their faith in God, & me having no answer at all for that. so depressing. > and the last lines of that book just haunt me. I was about to “ditto” this . . . then it reminded me of \*The Diary of Anne Frank. \*That girl had so much life within her, so much to live for. And yet it was her death that became her gift to the world. Nobody would have cared about her story, had she survived. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/44 "2012-05-25T18:46:40Z")
> [@Dustin\_the\_Wind](#): > > It is very sad. I read someplace - sorry, don’t remember where - that his brother(s) claim the author made everything up. I don’t see how anyone can make that stuff up though. [This article](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/28/magazine/dysfunction-for-dollars.html?pagewanted=all) discuss some of the reasons to doubt the veracity, on which I have no opinion. It’s not hard to make up horrible things, because you don’t really have to make them up: they probably happened to someone. The fiction could be in them all happening to any one person, let alone to him. Again, I couldn’t care less. I’ve flipped through his books, and he’s not a very good writer. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/45 "2012-05-25T18:53:55Z")
**The Grapes of Wrath** is pretty bleak. As an 13 year old **A Separate Peace** was disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/46 "2012-05-25T19:45:13Z")
I hated _Lord of the Flies_ and _Flowers for Algernon_. I never read _Where the Red Fern Grows_ but did sob openly at both _A Dog Called Kitty_ and one called _Hush_ that was about child abuse and included a violent animal death. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/47 "2012-05-25T20:03:03Z")
> [@Glory](#): > > [Year of Wonders](http://www.amazon.com/Year-Wonders-A-Novel-Plague/dp/0142001430/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337969545&sr=8-1). Read it on a plane, cried the whole time. People around me must have thought I was insane. I just finished this, and was about to nominate it when I saw you had. For those who don’t check out the link, it is about a small village beset by the plague. Half to two thirds of them die. The protagonist, who is widow already, loses both her children. This is not a happy book. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/48 "2012-05-25T20:16:44Z")
re “Child called It” - gads this is so popular in the school libraries where I work. Horrifying to think why it may touch a nerve in these kids. but they all feel sorry for themselves, so maybe it’s not so horrifying. anyway, there’s a lot out there on the net debunking it, saying the author made up a lot of it. best to judge for yourself. here’s a link to an interesting NY Times article on the author [http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/28/magazine/dysfunction-for-dollars.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/28/magazine/dysfunction-for-dollars.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm) ending hijack ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/49 "2012-05-25T20:23:43Z")
> **[Of Human Bondage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Human_Bondage)** > > Of Human Bondage is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The novel is generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although he stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham, who had originally planned to call his novel Beauty from Ashes, finally settled on a title taken from a section of Spinoza's Ethics. The Modern Library ranked Of Human Bondage No. 66 on its list of t Th... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/50 "2012-05-25T20:29:53Z")
Tolkien’s _The Children of Hurin_. Basically, the Devil hates Hurin so much that he sets out to make Hurin’s children suffer as much as humanly possible, while Hurin himself is forced to watch from afar. And succeeds. But the writing itself is perhaps the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/51 "2012-05-25T21:02:05Z")
Chronos - your entry makes me think of another depressing book, the Book of Job in the Bible. Plot - God & Satan make a bet on whether they can break a believer. When Job asks God why his life has been ruined God basically tells him to shut up, that God can do whatever he wants. And I’m supposed to worship this God? That’s depressing. so many depressing books, so little time. (oh and Chronos, we never discuss LOTR here anymore. wonder what those blue wizards are up to) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/52 "2012-05-25T21:14:33Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Chronos - your entry makes me think of another depressing book, the Book of Job in the Bible. Plot - God & Satan make a bet on whether they can break a believer. When Job asks God why his life has been ruined God basically tells him to shut up, that God can do whatever he wants. And I’m supposed to worship this God? That’s depressing. > > so many depressing books, so little time. > (oh and Chronos, we never discuss LOTR here anymore. wonder what those blue wizards are up to) The Book of Job is bad, but The Book of Ecclesiastes - the most non-religious part of the OT - is even more depressing - it has the ring of a weary truth to it. Job is just craziness, but Ecclesiasties is depressing because, well, who hasn’t thought the same way at one point or another? 😉 I dunno anything, written by anyone, that is more depressing than this: > [@](#): > > “Meaningless! Meaningless!” > says the Teacher. > “Utterly meaningless! > Everything is meaningless.” > 3 What do people gain from all their labors > at which they toil under the sun? > 4 Generations come and generations go, > but the earth remains forever. > 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, > and hurries back to where it rises. > 6 The wind blows to the south > and turns to the north; > round and round it goes, > ever returning on its course. > 7 All streams flow into the sea, > yet the sea is never full. > To the place the streams come from, > there they return again. > 8 All things are wearisome, > more than one can say. > The eye never has enough of seeing, > nor the ear its fill of hearing. > 9 What has been will be again, > what has been done will be done again; > there is nothing new under the sun. > 10 Is there anything of which one can say, > “Look! This is something new”? > It was here already, long ago; > it was here before our time. > 11 No one remembers the former generations, > and even those yet to come > will not be remembered > by those who follow them. ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/53 "2012-05-25T21:14:46Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > _ **A Child Called It** _ by Dave Pelzer. As a child Pelzer suffered severe abuse at the hands of his mother. When he was finally removed from the home, authorities said it was the third worst case of documented child abuse in the state of CA. To this day it makes me shudder to think about the horrific things his mother put him through. You do realize the whole thing’s a sham, right? The author just made it all up. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/54 "2012-05-25T21:16:41Z")
I haven’t read all the ones mentioned here, but it’s hard to imagine them depressing me more than _The Road_. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/55 "2012-05-25T21:24:21Z")
_Bastard Out Of Carolina_ by Dorothy Allison. First book in a very long time that made me angry and sad simultaneously. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/56 "2012-05-25T21:50:38Z")
I don’t know, Ecclesiastes just reads like bad teenage emo poetry, to me. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/57 "2012-05-25T21:51:23Z")
Malthus - those lines from Ecclesiastes are beautiful, in their own morbid way. I used to have that passage memorized. Thanks for posting it. ETA - that’s funny that we respond to that so differently, Chronos! To each their own ---
**Author:** ![Tayto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Tayto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tayto)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/58 "2012-05-25T22:16:11Z")
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb. Heartbreaking but brilliant. About due a fourth read… ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/59 "2012-05-25T22:36:55Z")
_Angela’s Ashes_ and _Bastard out of Carolina_ are right up there, but for me they get edged out by [_A Thousand Splendid Suns_](http://www.khaledhosseini.com/hosseini-books-splendidsuns.html) by Khaled Hosseini, the author of _The Kite Runner_. It was an excellent book about the lives of two women in Afghanistan. I actually had to take a break from the book so I could get enough perspective to finish it without throwing myself off a cliff. I would heartily recommend it to anyone with a fairly stable mental health history :D. ---
**Author:** ![iftheresaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecae2f/32.png) [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070/60 "2012-05-26T02:00:52Z")
John Irving always seems to do it for me. I love pretty much all of his books, but they almost always leave me in tears. Particularly amazing when he essentially starts the book by telling you that everyone is going to die.\* A Prayer for Owen Meany\* & _The World According to Garp_ are both good examples, but I think _Hotel New Hampshire_ takes the cake. Occasionally the phrase “Sorrow floats” pops into my head, and it never fails to choke me up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-book-youve-ever-read-but-was-still-a-good-book-spoilers/623070.md?page=4)