Saddest/Most Depressing Novel You've Ever Read

[capek]

Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of Signs of Life by M. John Harrison. Definitely a depressing, yet beautiful, novel.

[Dark Star]

I'll second the Sorrows of Young Werther recommendation.

Also, George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series as a whole; Martin is THE best character builder I have ever read, bar none, and is not afraid to kill off or harm favorite characters which leads to a lot of truly gut and heart-wrenching moments throughout the series. I've even heard a story about a fan who had to put the book in the freezer after his favorite character died because he couldn't bring himself to read more....

I also found Wuthering Heights to be quite a moving work.

[Wintermute]

I just finished Hotel New Hampsire by John Irving. I thought it was pretty damn depressing and funny at the same time. That's a rare combination! Another one by John Irving is Setting Free the Bears which tore me up at the end.

[AdoreroDio]

Two tear jerkers I know of are more young adult novel so they aren't really hard reads but are very good books that are the only books to ever make me cry- Where the Red Fern Grows (this is a movie now, which I have never seen) and Bridge to Terribithia (also a movie now, which didn't do a good job of jerking tears)

[Niamh]

I thought East of eden by Stienbeck was very sad. Spent about three hours crying at the end of that book. Even had my mam come into my room to see if i was okay.

[Oniw17]

The end of The Good Earth(by Pearl S. Buck) was ****ed up...like really really ****ed up. I think that's the only book/movie I've ever actually cried(yes, I actually cried at the end of that book) reading/watching. Coincidentially, that's one of my favorite books ever.

[Noisms]

Well, this thread is a barrel of laughs.

The most depressing book I've ever read is Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I get depressed just thinking about that awful, turgid, stupid, annoying thing - and wondering how on earth it merited a Booker prize.

As far as sad books go, I'd agree about A Song of Ice and Fire. You get really involved in character after character, only to see them being killed off in increasingly gruesome ways. Fantasy literature will never be the same again.

Othello is Shakespeare's best tragedy, I think. Hamlet is too weird, Macbeth lacks truly sympathetic characters, King Lear is too melodramatic. But I find Othello genuinely gut-wrenching.

[Olg]

Hi,
the most depressing book I've ever read is "Blinded". I do not rememner the author, some contemporary writer. But it was sooo depressing, I feld badly for a long time after reading it.
Cheers,
Olga

[Daniel A. C.]

Recently read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", and I must say that on the bleakness level, it blows all these other books out of the water.

It is dark, and all the more so because it is simply and straight-forwardly bleak, not fashionably dark, like a vampire novel or cyberpunk, etc. It is about the end of the world in a sense, and seems like this might be how it would actually happen.

The ending is quite touching.

[Behemoth]

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini would be a big one for me, as would The Sorrows of Young Werther. Although Ulysses also made me feel very depressed, that was for entirely different reasons..

[lisahead]

The Master and Margarita- affected me SO MUCH!! Absolutely haunting

[Werther]

BY GRAND CENTRAL STATION I SAT DOWN AND WEPT (-Elizabeth Smart). Like so many other books, I discovered this work through the iconic pop-star, 'Morrissey'. The song 'What She Said', from Morrissey's career with 'The Smiths', is based on Elizabeth Smart's book.

(....I would recommend an even sadder book than that mentioned above, but I'm still working on it.)

[Bookworm Cris]

I thought East of eden by Stienbeck was very sad. Spent about three hours crying at the end of that book. Even had my mam come into my room to see if i was okay.

Yes, I loved this book and it really made me sad when a beloved character died, at the end of Book One (no spoilers... )

But the books that were the most depressing and sad were the ones about the Holocaust; I remember having read "QB VII", by Leon Uris when I was 11 or 12, and the descriptions of the concentration camp's tortures impressed me a lot; later I have read many other books about the subject, and all of them were depressive, but very enlightening; we must learn from history, not to repeat the same mistakes.

I remember some of these books very well, like "Exodus", "Holocaust", "The Odessa Files"; I have not read "Sophie's Choice", but the movie was very strong and depressive; maybe the book is deepest, but Meryl Streep's performance conveyed all the emotion and inner struggle of that mother; an terrible and unbearable situation, indeed.

[mS_?]

I'll third The Sorrows of Young Werther, book made me sad for like a week.

[Zybahn]

Of course the source of one person's sadness is for another a wealth of amusement. I disagree with some here (especially The Hotel New Hampshire), but agree with others (Jude the Obscure and The Good Earth; don't read while shaving).

As for Amsterdam, I wholeheartedly agree, Noisms. I love McEwan but that was likely his weakest book. Even he admitted he wrote it as an in-between novel, a break from writing something serious. Sad indeed.

I will add two short stories that continuously tighten the valves of my heart:
"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" by Amy Hempel (in her collection Reasons to Live), and Katherine Mansfield's "The Daughters of the Late Colonel," from The Garden Party and Other Stories.

Happy crying.