what's the most emotionally devastating book on this list?
My
diary
diary
Ivan Illych was more like "well, that happened"
Mouchette. It's about a little girl who gets raped and mistreated repeatedly and eventually kills herself. Sort of like Tess of D'urbervilles but the girl is much younger
Also The Road but that opinion won't be taken seriously because of the popularity of the book
>>8080178
>Mouchette. It's about a little girl who gets raped and mistreated repeatedly and eventually kills herself. Sort of like Tess of D'urbervilles but the girl is much younger
is it smutty?
>>8080178
>Also The Road but that opinion won't be taken seriously because of the popularity of the book
how does this level up to suttree and blood meridian?
>>8080166
Really?
I cried like a little girl after I finished it.
diary
>>8080199
There wasnt anything there that wasnt his own fault so I couldnt really feel bad.
>>8080198
I prefer the latter two, but the Road is the most bleak imo
>>8080216
His slow and agonizing demise from stomach cancer was his own fault?
desu
>one day in the life of denis ivanovich
>depressing
I thought it was more like a bunch of the lads having a shit but cheeky vacation even though the reality was much different.
>>8080242
Was deliberately written so as to not have Ivan constantly lamenting about the torture of work camps, but for him to have accepted it as the nature of things and plod through his day as a mule plods through its
>>8080229
If he hadn't been so obsessed with his idea of being so fashionable he would have never had hurt himself during adjustments, which did lead to his illness.
And had he actually married a woman he loved instead of "lol why not" he would've never had to deal with all that he did with his family.
Its basically a story of a man living a lie and realizing it at the very last minute. Its sad sure, but for me not something to cry about. Its a story you see everyday.
>>8080151
oblomov is depressing?...
My opinions of the ones I've read:
>No Longer Human
Not particularly sad or emotional in my opinion. I found the protagonist to be irrational and annoying, and it felt like he brought all his misery upon himself so I didn't really sympathise with him. I thought I'd really relate to this book because I've been feeling increasingly alienated over the last few years, but I actually found it to be a pretty uninteresting read.
>Notes From Underground
Same as above, although I did think this one was slightly better. The underground man felt more like a caricature of a depressive, and didn't capture my personal experience of being depressed. Maybe it's different for other people with other experiences though. But again, an ok book but not particularly emotional.
>Last Exit to Brooklyn
Loved the stream-of-consciousness writing style here and found it to be a surprisingly powerful book. It's not particularly sad, but it is very depressing in that it thrusts you into the hearts and minds of the most depraved people in the city. One of the best books I've read over the last few years.
>Jude the Obscure
It took a while to get there, but when it all started to really unravel for Jude - "Done because we are too menny" - I found it pretty moving. I found his story, of an optimistic working class guy who slowly but surely has all his dreams shit on and ends up in absolute misery, to be pretty relatable.
>The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Started off with what seemed to be a very interesting concept, but ended up being pure trash. Maybe I just don't get surrealism, but I found it to be incoherent and boring. Not emotional at all, although that concept definitely could have been, with a different writer.
>The Road
I found it bleak but not necessarily moving. Loved some of the prose (e.g. Will I see you at last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally, have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered. Oh God) and thought the premise was interesting. Not really depressing because it seemed to end on an optimistic note. It used to be my favourite book, although I was 15 when I read it first and I've not properly re-read it since.
>>8080262
The fact that it's a story you see every day is exactly the reason why it is something to cry about. Were it an isolated case study, I would pity him. But it is all of our existence that was his affliction.
The Tunnel, by Sabato, is bretty devastatong imho family member
>>8080291
Speak for yourself. Its the story of a man who didnt know what he wanted in life and bought into other peoples ideas of it, and paid the price.
There are more than enough people in real life who are doing the exact opposite, so there's no point in identifying with Ivan's issues when there's something you can do about it.
>>8080282
The optimistic note the novel seemed to end on could very well have either been the fever dream of the dying father, or the individuals that took him in could have easily been cannibals or murderers masquerading as bright lights in the fog
>>8080301
I was speaking for myself, but I'm not quite as optimistic as you that all people have complete agency over the trajectory of their lives
>>8080151
Though it's not on the list, I found that the most emotionally upsetting book I've ever read is the Sound and the Fury
I've only read a few but I love notes from underground. It's not sad, but it's filled with vitriol
The Book of Disquiet isn't depressing to me at all. It's very empowering, it keeps me in a trance, says what I wanted to say.
Now I can remain silent and die.
: - )
>>8080178
Not to be that Stoner guy but does this kind of stuff really work as being "sad" or "devastating"? I've always found this kind of over the top stuff hard to relate to. Things like: multiple rapes and murdered parents and what not. More subtle, emotional, and realistic sadness/melancholy (like in Stoner) is far more effective. At least for me.
>>8080427
They are different types of trauma. The former needn't bee over the top if it is handled maturely with the subjects treated as thougn they cannot fully conceptualize how they are being acted upon (like a child who does not understand what it means to be raped but is raped nonetheless, or a girl who is repeatedly mistreated because she feels it is befitting of her social class and gender (Tess of D'urbervilles). They cannot help their lot in life, and are merely vessels moving through a tragic existence without the wherewithal to understand how they might fight their way out. In this way their suffering is universal
>>8080216
That only made it all worse though. He thought that everything was going well and never stopped to think about if life was actually improving because he so believed in the path he had taken.
Even though I'm still pretty young I can already see times I chose to work rather than enjoy myself; I keep telling myself that there will be a point were it all pays off, but is there?
So many people are already filled with fun memories and I have my "career." I wonder if it's already to late. If I died of a horrible sickness in the next week, I would have the same story.
But what am I supposed to do? Abandon my work and work on a family? Try to just enjoy time with others? I can't just do that.
I'm going down the same path and I don't know how to stop it.
>>8080534
A considerable chunk of Ivan's suffering besides being so overly concerned with how others see him was his poor relationship with his family. They more or less abandoned him because that's exactly how he treated them, and soon enough he recoiled and thought he could win their affections with material bullshit.
Are you really going along those lines?
>>8080534
you sound like a huge faggot
>>8080151
Johnny Got His Gun needs to be on this list.
