# What was the first novel you ever read that left you emotionally exhausted? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034 "2011-04-28T15:01:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/41 "2011-04-29T04:12:59Z")
My aunt gave me a beautiful illustrated edition of Tale of Two Cities (which I still have) when I was a little too young for it, maybe 12 or so. I struggled to understand the motivations of the characters, especially Madame DeFarge (I couldn’t really figure out why she hated Darnay so much, and the explanation came too late to be very meaningful to me) and Sydney Carton. This was a new kind of character for me, noble in spirit but a failure in life, unambitious and over-qualified, and deeply but hopelessly in love. The ending left me in a very strange state, such things had never occurred to me as possible or believable before. I just pulled it off the shelf; it’s the Illustrated Junior Library Edition. It’s one of my favorite things. I think this was perhaps the first adult-level book I ever read. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/42 "2011-04-29T04:21:53Z")
I was probably about 12 years old when I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and I probably didn’t sleep well for two weeks after that. I don’t think either of my parents had a clue about the contents of that book. Looking back on it, that was probably a pretty big turning point in the way I see life. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/43 "2011-04-29T04:27:59Z")
Flight #116 Is Down by Caroline B. Cooney. It’s about a plane crash. I read it in eighth grade and I had never really thought much about plane crashes before and how unlikely I would be to survive one. More recently, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. That book really pulled me in. I could almost believe that the apocalyptic events in the book were really happening and it made me nervous if I looked up in the night sky and the moon looked too close to us. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/44 "2011-04-29T04:52:26Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Possibly this, but my first thought was _Where the Red Fern Grows_, which I read all in one Saturday when I was about 7. Wilson Rawls lived in my home town, and I remember one Christmas getting a signed copy of Where the Red Fern Grows and a dalmation puppy; my folks bought both from Wilson Rawls himself. The first book I read that made a lasting emotional impact on me was Cat’s Cradle. Cataclysmic disaster is not only thinkable, but possible. But the first book that left me emotionally exhausted was Deliverance. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/45 "2011-04-29T09:05:17Z")
Both **1984** and **One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest** were probably my earliest ones, as far as I can remember, but the one that most stands out is _Dosteyevsky’s_ **Crime and Punishment**. It just kept draining and draining me. So much so that afterwards I went on to read **The Brothers Karamazov**. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/46 "2011-04-29T09:17:44Z")
_Seven Little Australians_ by Ethel Turner. I read it when I was … um … nine, I guess? I fell in love with the Woolcot family, and the part at the end where Judy died completely rocked me. I stayed up late to finish it, and I remember sitting there in the dark, shaking like a leaf. I’d loved reading for as long as I could remember, but that was the first book that really got to me emotionally. It was my favourite for years because of that, and still holds a special place in my heart. ---
**Author:** ![DivineComedienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@DivineComedienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DivineComedienne)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/47 "2011-04-29T14:28:49Z")
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I enjoy movies from the 30’s and 40’s and I will often follow up the movie by reading the book on which the movie was based. I saw the movie with Peggy Ann Garner, which was good; but I was mesmerized by the book. Reading about what the kids went through growing up in poverty just about broke my heart. I’m not sure if I can explain this right, but, occasionally I will read a book that I enjoy so much, it makes me sad to finish it because I can never read it again for the first time, and I’m sorry it’s done when I get to the end. ATGIB was one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/48 "2011-04-29T15:01:20Z")
_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. I read it a loooong time ago, as in possibly junior high, but I remember being incredibly moved by the courage of the characters in the books, and devastated when one of them was killed. I was so upset I put the book down and didn’t pick it up for weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/49 "2011-04-29T15:40:56Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. > > I read it a loooong time ago, as in possibly junior high, but I remember being incredibly moved by the courage of the characters in the books, and devastated when one of them was killed. I was so upset I put the book down and didn’t pick it up for weeks. UTC is a classic. I started reading it with a slightly smug, superior attitude, and ended up getting sucked in completely. You can see why it was such a hit back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/50 "2011-04-29T16:00:39Z")
I don’t know which I read earlier, but I was really moved by both “Trinity” by Leon Uris and “War and Remembrance” by Herman Wouk. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/51 "2011-04-29T18:31:17Z")
> [@Jane\_Doe](#): > > _The Yearling_ Cried for hours after finishing this book at age 10. Even I cried at _The Yearling_ at that age, and I hate everything. if you don’t cry at that book at that age, something is wrong with you. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/52 "2011-05-01T04:32:37Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ That’s the one… ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/53 "2011-05-01T05:20:22Z")
_Mr God, this is Anna_. I was eleven, an agnostic/atheist (still am) and I was swept up in that book from the sausages to the iron railings. Felt like there was almost an epiphany per chapter (numbers! light! Electrical currents!) and I wept buckets at the end. I still believe that the answer is in my middle. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/54 "2011-05-01T08:57:24Z")
[I am the Cheese](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Cheese) by Robert Cormier. It just resonated. Boy who cycles a lot with a sense the world is not right. Oh my (but do I ever have the _non plus ultra_ of bicycles now). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034.md?page=2)