Books that have made you cry

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inspired by lunar park by bret easton ellis, which i have just finished (its beautiful beautiful horrifyingly beautiful, and ABSOLUTELY NOT WHAT YOU THINK! no preppies doing coke)

so for me its

Lunar Park by Ellis
This side of paradise by fitzgerald
Brightness falls by Jay McInerney
and some star wars book i can't really remember that well, except that han solo was involved and i was maybe 12

anyone else feel like this?

― JD from CDepot, Friday, 19 August 2005 04:04 (twenty years ago)

I want to read a book that will make me cry, right now. The latest Jonathan Safran Foer made me cry. I saw tear stains on the library copy so apparently it made LOTS OF PEOPLE CRY.

I have the new Ellis on hold and wasn't sure I wanted to read it, but I guess now I will, so I can weep.

― gunther heartymeal (keckles), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

this brings back bad memories of the last thread we had on this topic

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I don't know about that. I live on the fringe of ILX. I won't ask since the memories are bad.

― gunther heartymeal (keckles), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:12 (twenty years ago)

what happened on the last thread?

― JD from CDepot, Friday, 19 August 2005 04:13 (twenty years ago)

I cried pretty solidly for a good ten minutes when I finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. Such a beautiful novel.

I think I've also cried during a few Philip K. Dick novels, one of which was Confessions of a Crap Artist.

― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:19 (twenty years ago)

Last time I remember really crying over a book was when I read the biography of Jaco Pastorius. His was such a sad story.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:23 (twenty years ago)

WATERSHIP DOWN

but I was like 10

― DougD (DougD), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

Does my crying count if I am drunk at the time?

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:19 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but only if you are crying about the book and not about how your father couldn't express his love properly,

― estela (estela), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

I guess Ender's Game got me the first time I read it.. and Catcher in the Rye, of course. And that other Salinger short story, "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" (?).. Most recently, I guess I choked up during some random passage from Journey to the End of the Night about why he has trouble sleeping.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, 19 August 2005 06:06 (twenty years ago)

The most recent one I can remember was probably The Amber Spyglass

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 19 August 2005 06:14 (twenty years ago)

poortheatre... wow, Journey To The End Of The Night, what an awesome book that is. I read it when I was commuting a few years ago, and had this fear/anticipation thing every time I got on the train about going back into Céline's world. I remember pulling facial expressions whilst reading it to the bemusement of other passengers. Excruciating and amazing.

― angle of dateh, Friday, 19 August 2005 07:03 (twenty years ago)

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith. But in a really, really good way.

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Friday, 19 August 2005 07:08 (twenty years ago)

'A Special Relationship' by Douglas Kennedy. I had no idea when I picked up my mum's copy for an easy read just what I was letting myself in for, it was truly horrible

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 19 August 2005 07:24 (twenty years ago)

Obviously Alcide was perfectly at ease, at home so to speak, in the higher regions, on terms of familiarity with the angels. You wouldn't have known it to look at him. With hardly a thought of what he was doing, he had consented to years of torture, to the crushing of his life in this torrid monotony for the sake of a little girl to whom he was vaguely related. Motivated by nothing but his good heart, he had set no conditions and asked nothing in return. To that little girl far away he was giving enough tenderness to make the whole world over, and he never showed it.

Suddenly he fell asleep in the candlelight. After a while I got up to look at his face. He slept like everybody else. He looked quite ordinary. There ought to be some mark by which to distinguish the good people from bad.

― gear (gear), Friday, 19 August 2005 07:34 (twenty years ago)

Mason and Dixon, at the end.

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 19 August 2005 07:42 (twenty years ago)

Boxy an Star, for sure. I think there was a more recent one, but I can't remember offhand.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 19 August 2005 08:08 (twenty years ago)

Animal Farm, at the death.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 19 August 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

Weirdly, the only book I ever remember actually crying at was Charming Billy, which (as I recall) is a very nicely written novel but not the kind of thing that would usually make me cry. I guess I was in the right mood or something.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 19 August 2005 08:24 (twenty years ago)

Be My Knife, by David Grossman. Reading it is like running for way more hours then you actually can. Nearing the end of the novel you're exhausted, everything hurts, but you *must* know how it will end. Body and mind chockfull of emotions and feelings. That it will end dramatically is no secret at that point, so like a marathonrunner you drag yourself to the finish-line, only to break completely and burst into tears.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747561486/qid=1124444208/sr=8-13/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i13_xgl/026-1718688-8706017

― Gerard (Gerard), Friday, 19 August 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

Surely the ultimate sentimental novel is Greyfriar's Bobby?
I can't understand why disney didn't make a film out of it.

― Menelaus Darcy (Menelaus Darcy), Friday, 19 August 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)

Because they don't own the rights. There is a film of it, and there's about to be a new film of it very soon.

Every time we pass Greyfriars Bobby's statue in Edinburgh I have to go into my "oh no, poor wee Bobby, don't die Bobby, don't die!" spiel. I can't help it. Perhaps because I was a complete wreck after I read that book as a kid.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 19 August 2005 09:52 (twenty years ago)

I think I found it very upsetting as a kid; but it hasn't scarred me like watching Day of the Triffids did (terrifying) and Dr Who (too scary) and the episode of Macguyver with all the killer ants (what a wuss I am)

― Menelaus Darcy (Menelaus Darcy), Friday, 19 August 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

The latest Jonathan Safran Foer made me cry. I saw tear stains on the library copy so apparently it made LOTS OF PEOPLE CRY.

"everything is illuminated", rather than the new one (which i haven't yet read)? i came to this thread specifically to say that :)

it's odd: i blub like a baby at films and music, but with the written word i find it easier to control myself. but EII got me in the heart.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 19 August 2005 10:57 (twenty years ago)

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