Saddest book you have read?

[RDMcG]

Read. most of the books listed.

However for me, maybe unusually, the saddest book was the Great Gatsby.

All the apparent glamour, the unrequited love, the emptiness and the fact that so much of it was an illusion alway stayed with me.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

heisthegaffer said:

Reading about the Korean War by Max Hastings. Utterly, utterly depressing and a massive waste of life and resources.

I'm not keen on Max Hastings either

[heisthegaffer]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

heisthegaffer said:

Reading about the Korean War by Max Hastings. Utterly, utterly depressing and a massive waste of life and resources.

I'm not keen on Max Hastings either

Ha ha that really made me laugh

[dontlookdown]

CoupeKid said:

Golden Gate by Vikram Seth.

I haven’t read it since I was a teenager but as I recall it’s about a lonely engineer in Silicon Valley who eventually loses all his friends in a car crash.

The crazy thing is that it’s written entirely in verse.

All in rhyming couplets, including the title.

I loved that too. Really impressed me as a twentysomething. But I don't remember it being especially sad at all. Funny how different people can have such different memories of the same book;)

[tertius]

dontlookdown said:

JapanRed said:

perdu said:

In fiction the saddest, most desolate book ever.

"On The Beach" Nevil Shute.

I know I will never read that book again although some of his others are inspirational such as "Trustee From The Toolroom".

I’ve ordered this book from Amazon. Had never heard of it until you mentioned it but the synopsis reads brilliantly.

If you haven't read any Shute I envy you! A treat awaits. Try Trustee from the Toolroom, No Highway, Most Secret, and another v poignant one for this thread, Requiem for a Wren.

And not for this thread but Parsifal is simply wonderful, one of my favourite of all books.

[popeyewhite]

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway

Started this on holiday one year and three pages in (having recently read Iain M Banks), thought "this isn't for me". Way too descriptive, emotive and drawn out. Somehow I was hooked before I knew it, and was so absorbed nearly missed my flight home reading in the departure lounge. A love story centred on the Spanish Civil War, brutal and touching in equal measure. An extraordinary read, but also exhausting.

[MC Bodge]

popeyewhite said:

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway

Started this on holiday one year and three pages in (having recently read Iain M Banks), thought "this isn't for me". Way too descriptive, emotive and drawn out. Somehow I was hooked before I knew it, and was so absorbed nearly missed my flight home reading in the departure lounge. A love story centred on the Spanish Civil War, brutal and touching in equal measure. An extraordinary read, but also exhausting.

I read it when I was about 20. I thought it was excellent. I've not found any other Hemingway books as good.

[TorqueDirty]

I posted on here a while ago about Tess of the d'Urbervilles but how could I have forgotten Of Mice and Men?

That book broke me completely - and is one of my top 10 books of all time.

[ATV]

Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is a tough read, especially if you have kids.

Also "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes I remember being very sad.

[marcosgt]

What's the Thomas The Tank engine story where they brick one of the trains up in a tunnel?

I remember thinking that was a pretty dark tale for children when I read it to my son.

OK, they're trains, but they're all personified in the books, so bricking one up, forever, in a tunnel seemed a very grim tale!

My son didn't really seem to care at the time, so I guess kids just don't see it the same way.

Just reading back, I'd have to agree the saddest novel I've ever read was 'On The Beach', the complete absence of hope really bought home how real the fear of nuclear holocaust was in the 50s and 60s.

M

[tribalsurfer]

My 4 year old brought a book home from school called Chicken Lickin', absolutely brutal. Loads of farm yeard birds get together and then they meet a family of foxes that eat them. 4yo FFS

[MC Bodge]

tribalsurfer said:

My 4 year old brought a book home from school called Chicken Lickin', absolutely brutal. Loads of farm yeard birds get together and then they meet a family of foxes that eat them. 4yo FFS

Haha. that takes me back.

Children's stories are/were often quite brutal. We have tended to sanitise things a little in recent times.

[Brooksay]

Milkyway said:

The Plague dogs : Richard Adams.
( a VERY long time ago, I hasten to add).
A story with a twist... it told as from the animals viewpoint.

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 1st September 19:26

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 1st September 19:27

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 1st September 20:13

Yep, even better than his more well known 'Watership Down'. Was made into a good film, too.

This might make a few eyes roll, but I've always been moved by 'Wizard and Glass', a Dark Tower book by Stephen King.

[CallThatMusic]

Robert Fisk : The Great War For Civilisation (The Conquest Of The Middle East )

[Rtyannam]

selym said:

I think the book was called Voices From The Holocaust. It was devastating to read, even with everything we all know about the Holocaust.

I also read "Voices From The Holocaust" and was impressed (((

[Perseverant]

Lots of depressing ideas - I've read a lot of them. I think that the image of the runaway train at the end of "La Bete Humaine" by Emile Zola is pretty sad, as are so many of his books. Just make sure that they are modern translation as older versions were censored - not some thing I knew until I tried some comparisons with online versions.

[McGee_22]

Former People by Douglas Smith.

A factual historical view into the Russian psyche of unrelenting oppression, torment and violence of its own people and perhaps why they treat all human beings so poorly.

There are nuggets of hope and small moments of human brightness in there that make it extremely readable - I’m about to set off into it for a third time.

[DoubleSix]

MC Bodge said:

popeyewhite said:

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway

Started this on holiday one year and three pages in (having recently read Iain M Banks), thought "this isn't for me". Way too descriptive, emotive and drawn out. Somehow I was hooked before I knew it, and was so absorbed nearly missed my flight home reading in the departure lounge. A love story centred on the Spanish Civil War, brutal and touching in equal measure. An extraordinary read, but also exhausting.

I read it when I was about 20. I thought it was excellent. I've not found any other Hemingway books as good.

His masterpiece i would say, though enjoyed ‘A farewell to arms’ equally.

[otolith]

Brooksay said:

Yep, even better than his more well known 'Watership Down'. Was made into a good film, too.

This might make a few eyes roll, but I've always been moved by 'Wizard and Glass', a Dark Tower book by Stephen King.

I read that many years ago. I have recently discovered that I like audiobooks more than I expected and am most of the way through bingeing the series again. I did not really remember that one, or how grim it was. Is the revelation about what happened to Roland’s mother the end of that or the start of the next one?

[Janluke]

A Fine Balance-Rohinton Mistry

Set in India from the 70s a story of 4 people dealing with the cruelty and corruption of India. "A Fine Balance" between hope and despair.
While fiction it's historically accurate. I became quite angry with the author(silly I know) for what he put his charges through