What Are Your Sad Books?

[Calantha]

I just finished Tuesdays With Morrie and I've got to say, I cried the last three or four chapters.

I think we can all agree that there are some books which just strike some sad emotional chord. What are those books for you? Are there any books like that for you? What are your sad books (and no, I don't mean pathetic )?

[Trixey]

A Dog Called Kitty is probably the saddest book Ive ever read. Ive never read a book were the good guy(in this case, dog) dies at the end

[Isbister15]

There's this book that I read, oh, probably almost a year ago and it was sad and beautiful and totally wonderful, in my mind. The funny thing is I'd been meaning to write about it on this site to recommend it to others (specifically, En and Calantha because I think you two would really like it) but I just never did it. So here I am, now.

The book is called Hotel World and it's by Ali Smith. Another funny thing is that I'd actually gone to the library to look for a book by someone named Lee Smith, but they didn't have that one. But this red book with a hotel bed on the cover written by a different Smith caught my eye and I decided to borrow it. I'm really glad I did because I thought the book was amazing and I hadn't really read anything like it before.

I don't want to spoil anything in case anyone would like to give it a chance, but basically it's the story of a young girl who had just started a new job as a bus girl (or something like that) at a hotel but whose life comes to a tragic end when she attempts a silly stunt that a co-worker suggests. So it's her spirit telling the story, as well as others (including her sister) who played a part in her life or her last few days. Some of the parts dealing with her family's pain are kind of hard to read.

I know I'm not selling the book well here, but it's much better than I can ever express. I *really* like how of all the things that her spirit focuses on, one of the main things she wants to know is how long in seconds the fall to her death was. It's amazing the things that go through her mind when she really doesn't have a mind anymore.

Eh, well. The book is lovely but very sad in that such a young life is over so suddenly and all for nothing. I feel lucky to have happened upon the book at all.

[Calantha]

Izzy, that seems like it is a very good book
*writes it down on a post-it and puts it on her wall*
Even though it's a childhood favourite, Black Beauty gets me every time...just everything that horse has to go through really hits me and although I don't cry anymore, I used to a lot.
It rates up there with a lot of sad books I read when I was younger, like Where the Red Fern Grows and The Bridge to Taribethia (sp?) and Tuck Everlasting.

[Will]

It's spelled "Terabithia". I wouldn't know how to spell it either if I didn't have the book.

And yes, that one was rather sad, however I think I was in total shock when Leslie died... Therefore there was no tears. Goodness, Tuck Everlasting was a tear jerker too, though I had mixed emotions for it.

This might sound odd to you, but Interview With the Vampire forced tears out of my eyes. A lot of tears. Mainly because of what Louis did to Lestat through out the book...

[En]

*puts the Ali Smith book on the library list* Thanks, Isbister.

Oh -- ditto on A Dog Called Kitty -- I read it years ago but I can still remember reading it, vividly -- that was back in the day when I used spare sheets and blankets to make "forts" in my room, and I was under my desk, all curled up and trying not to make any noise because I didn't want my family to know I was crying over that book

And Bridge to Terabithia breaks my heart even more now than it did the first time.

I don't cry over Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness anymore, though I still think it's a mesmerizingly well-written book. I do cry over The African Queen for reasons I'm not going to admit But I have to say -- the book that beats all others for making me cry is Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, specifically, the scene in which Douglas closes a window. If you've read it, you know what I mean.

[Calavera Diablos]

Oh good. Now I don't feel like a complete idiot for crying profusely after reading Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terabithia. Man, I haven't read those since like, 4th grade. Such tender memories. *sniff*

I just finished reading Choke by Chuck Palahnuik and that made me go a big rubbery one.

When I read Tuesdays with Morrie, was learning to cope with my Aunt's inevitable, disease inflicted death, so that book is very important to me.

I know this may sound odd, but Interview with a Vampire always touches me in the same manner. I see Vampires as more of a metaphor for our internal conflicts than straight out fantasy creature.

[fico the fur]

choke made you cry, cala? *thinks back over the book* did I totally miss something, then?

the moves make the man (bruce brooks) made me cry for a long time. as did the true confessions of charlotte doyle (avi). that's the only avi book i ever read, but it was really good. only i haven't read it since eighth grade or something, so don't completely take my word for that.

one book that hit me hard was lost boys by orson scott card. i totally cried, i'm surprised i didn't bleach my face with my tears.

about where the red fern grows, am i the only one who never cried at the end? for serious, i never did. the part in that book that hit me hard was when (gah. *has forgotten all the names of the characters*) when the main character gets in a fight with those two brothers, and the older brother gets hurt, and the brothers' dog gets hurt? oh well, the point is, the part that really got me in that book was when the older brother got hurt. because even though the main character couldn't relate to those brothers at all, he never wanted them hurt. that was so... perfect. isn't that how humans are supposed to be? even when we don't relate to other people, when we don't understand them or even appreciate them, it's not like we're supposed to want them hurt.

[En]

*looks curious* Why did you cry over The Moves Make the Man? I mean -- I can see why one might, but I wonder why you did, Gen.

I didn't, but mostly because I was tied up six ways from Tuesday with the philosophical issues hidden deep in the book, all the stuff about the nature of 'truth.' Sometimes my head gets so busy that the rest of me forgets I'm human, which is not something I'm proud of

[fico the fur]

because... because bix totally pulled it off, and i don't know if i wanted him to. bix gave up everything that defined him. truth was his defining facor. and during the game, i thought he was just making an exception. i could understand that. but then he fooled jerome's family, and he pulled the move on his mom, and it was just too much. he completely changed who he was, and i don't know why.

[En]

But he didn't, at all. He was still going on truth. He finally realised how much pain his big important "truth" had caused his mother, and that sometimes a fake is the truest way of showing you're trying.

[fico the fur]

i see...

but was that fake at the end really causing less pain? that's the thing that got me. i mean, i can understand how his original "truth" was not the way to go, because a fake would show he was trying. but at the end, what did his fake accomplish?

[En]

It set people free. If he'd greeted his own mother, and she'd asked him The Question, he would have felt obligated to give her the answer, which would have been the same answer he gave her before. But, because he did care for her, he chose not to bring it all back on her.

His fake also set Bix free, because it allowed him to get out of the situation with his stepfather, which was only bound to get unhealthier, no matter what we think of Bix or the stepdad. If it had gone on like that, both of them would have become monsters.

More than that -- it put Bix out in the world. It made him go out there and learn that there are bigger things than truth: there are relationships, beliefs and goals that are much more important than strict accuracy.

If I'd cried, it would have been because I was proud of him, or because I felt for the narrator, in his confusion and struggle to understand and accept.

[fico the fur]

why would he give the same answer he gave before? i thought he would have to say he loved her, and that would be the truth, too. because at that point in time, right? it was the truth. the first time, he said he didn't because at that point in time, he didn't. but at this point in time, he would. and before that, he had, and afterward, he would. it was a truth.

i can see what you're saying about bix and his stepdad... i dunno. i would have been fine with him running away if he had just settled things with his mom. because then everything would be clean when he left.

i think it's important that he did leave. and i can see what you're saying about why he pulled the fake, but i don't think i agree with it.

... i was mostly crying for his mom. 'cause she lost him twice, and then he was gone for good.

[En]

His mom doesn't know anymore. There couldn't be any clean ends, because she didn't even know him anymore. If she did recognize him at that last minute, then what he did did tie things up, and if she didn't, which is more likely, there wasn't anything he could do anyway.

For that matter... I think a big part of that book was that there aren't clean ends. I don't believe in them either.

I don't think his answer to that question would have been different there in the hospital. If he had to answer based on that moment, he would have said no because he didn't know her anymore; he didn't know the person she'd become in there. And he cared for her enough not to put himself in the position of having to give that answer. A different kind of honesty. A more loving kind.