Depressing Books: S/D

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Something Happened by Joseph Heller
Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre
Mister God, This is Anna by Fynn (though it wasn't meant to be (I guess))

― Fred (Fred), Monday, 24 May 2004 12:08 (twenty-one years ago)

All Quiet on the Western Front-Remarque
A Pale View of Hills-Kazuo Ishiguro

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 24 May 2004 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

There's more than an element of subjectivity here. Unlike the Mad Writers thread which has a more tangible basis.

Something Happened is one of those books where the cynical tone wears it down, rather than doom and gloom plotting.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 24 May 2004 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

The Butcher Boy.

― slow learner (slow learner), Monday, 24 May 2004 22:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Bartleby the Scrivener
Notes from Underground

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

This way to the Gas Ladies and Gentleman. Tadeus Borowski.

also most James Lee Burke books. Love 'em but they always make me feel sad.

― kath (kath), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I always find James Ellroy's books depressing as well, with their air of all-pervading corruption and most of the characters' contempt for just about everyone, including themselves. But the single most depressing book I ever read was Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. It is such an unpleasant book that I almost didn't finish it, had to put it down and walk away from it at certain points, and would never read it again, nor recommend it to anyone else to read.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

So I don't know if that makes it a search or a destroy.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 08:04 (twenty-one years ago)

As soon as I saw this thread I thought of Something happened by Joseph Hellor and there it was top of the thread. I don't think the main body of the novel is that depressing but t he ending absolutely blew me away.

― holojames (holojames), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 09:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I always find (or, found -- it's been a while) Vonnegut to be much more depressing than most people seem to.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I find Kurt Vonnegut depressing, but not his books.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

La Religieuse by Diderot -- supposedly this novel, the "letter" of a young woman forced by her parents to become a nun and begging a nobleman to help her escape the life, began as a prank. Diderot made up this nun in distress, based on a true story, and sent his friend "her" letters to see whether he would help. In the end, Diderot wound up all heartbroken over his own prank and felt compelled to write the novel... at least, I think that's how this book got written, maybe I'm falling for a prank myself! But anyway, it's beautiful, and worth the despair.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Stargirl (the kid's book by Spinelli). This beautiful wonderful girl is rejected by the boy who is too afraid of what everyone else thinks.

My Antonia...
Norwegian Wood...
House of Mirth....

Hmm...depends on the day and my mood. anything about unrequited love gets me. Or when a true noble wonderful person is trodden down by the steps of life. Arg!

La Religuiese sounds fascinating...

bye

― PeanutDuck (PeanutDuck), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.
Maybe I should start a different thread on this, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of any happy Irish stories?

― SJ Lefty, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Mine! Young girl grows up, is taught by both nuns and brothers, never beaten, never abused, minor bullying in school but nothing she can't handle, goes to college, has friends and nice job and apartment...

...it's not very interesting, is it? And there's precious little in there that you can blame on the Brits.

There is an argument that AA could have been more uplifting if the writing was better, but it's true that the story just is not much fun. Try Frank O'Connor's short stories, which are hilarious and very uplifting. Also try John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun because it is beautiful.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 07:31 (twenty-one years ago)

'Hangover Square' by Patrick Hamilton for depressing you about the darkest depths of human nature.

'1984' for depressing you about the impossibility of individual freedom.

'This Is The Way The World Ends' by James Morrow for depressing you about the future of the human race.

― Mog, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Postscript: after you've read that little lot, you'll be needing the most *uplifting* book ever. Which is, obviously, 'Stone Junction' by Jim Dodge.

― Mog, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson! That one's a downer.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 27 May 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Downer: The Grapes of Wrath
Upper: Cannery Row

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 27 May 2004 09:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno, although 'The Grapes Of Wrath' is very bleak I found the ending to be totally uplifting, in a human-spirit-can-never-be-conquered type way. 'Of Mice And Men' is much more of a downer overall.

Agree about 'Cannery Row' though - my favourite Steinbeck book so far. Found 'Sweet Thursday' a bit of a lacklustre follow-up though.

― Mog, Thursday, 27 May 2004 09:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Tortilla Flat! When Steinbeck and humour clashed.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 27 May 2004 09:28 (twenty-one years ago)

To good effect, that is.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 27 May 2004 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Dubliners by James Joyce is a good ol' depressing collection of short stories.

― Fred (Fred), Thursday, 27 May 2004 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Bridge to Terabithia. I cried and cried and cried...

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Thursday, 27 May 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Lucy Grealy's "Autobiography of a Face" isn't depressing at all, despite it being about the author's suffering cancer and awful disfigurement. However, I just finished reading "Truth and Beauty", Ann Patchett's memoir of her best friend Lucy Grealy's decline, fall, and death by heroin overdose, and it's just WRENCHING.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

The Saddest Little Robot -- kids' book by Brian Gage. It's actually more uplifting than his usual but he says the sequel's going to be grey and miserable.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Mein Kampf. It is unnerving that people are capable of believing that poisonous shit.

― SRH (Skrik), Friday, 28 May 2004 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

'We wish to inform
you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families' by Philip Gourevitch.

It's about the genocide in Rwanda 10 years ago. It's obviously going to be a depressing read but it's so well written that it does give you some way of getting your head round the awfulness of what happened. It's also written with anger, as is proper. There are details that I will never forget (e.g. why there were no dogs in Rwanda 2 years after the genocide, the unbelievably moving story told in the very last paragraph). It's also very good in explaining how even after a genocide, life has to go on.
(One possible flaw - it's very pro-Kagame, the President since 1994. I don't know if Gourevitch has changed his mind about Kagame since Rwanda's involvement in the Congo wars. It also underplays the horror of the Tutsi's killing of thousands of Hutus at a refugee camp after Kagame took power. To get a full sense of the horror of this, you need to read Linda Polman's eye-witness account in 'We did nothing', another fairly depressing book about various UN interventions around the world)

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Friday, 28 May 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Bluest Eye" by Tony Morrison.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Sunday, 30 May 2004 04:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Jude the Obscure [Thomas Hardy].

Felicia's Journey [William Trevor].

Two Girls Fat and Thin [Mary Gaitskill].

Preston Falls [David Gates].

Jane Eyre [Charlotte Bronte].

― ygdrasil, Monday, 31 May 2004 00:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Whoops ..... forgive my lack of knowledge about the S/D. Those books are not ones I'd like to see S/D'ed. They are depressing, though.

― ygdrasil (ygdrasil), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Anything by James Kelman - grey, bleak and depressing. 'How late it was, How late' is more amusing, but still grey, bleak and depressing.

― Rumpy Pumpkin (rumpypumpkin), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

>Those books are not ones I'd like to see S/D'ed.

You mean u don't like them?

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Massive downer: anything by Michel Houellebecq.

― RR (restandrec), Monday, 21 June 2004 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Most of the depressing books I can think of are children's books, which makes me wonder what the hell the authors are thinking. Where the Red Fern Grows is the one that instantly pops into my head. That combined with The Yearling and Old Yeller will make you think your pets will last a year or two, and then you'll probably have to go shoot them in the head.

― Jessa (Jessa), Monday, 21 June 2004 11:46 (twenty-one years ago)

'The trouble with being born' - EM Cioran:

Better to be an animal than a man, an insect than an animal, a plant than an insect, and so on. Salvation? Whatever diminishes the kingdom of consciousness and compromises its supremacy. "

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 21 June 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

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