Books that are painful to read, but EVERYONE should!

[expatinscotland]

I'll start:

Schindler's List

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Colour Purple

My Sister's Keeper
Boy Called It
Before I Say Goodbye
C is for Cancer

Tried to read Gloria H's book about Caron Keatingbut it was too sad

I'd add V. Britains Testament to Youth to the WW1 books.

And Go Ask Alice - about a teenager who gets into drugs - v. powerful reading for late teens, and Ithink the reason why my youthful experimentation didn't go too far

I'd just like to second (or is it third/fourth by now) the recommendations to read Primo Levi (especially If This is a Man).

Issymum, I'm not sure if it offers a 'different from the mainstream' perspective on the Holocaust. But it is remarkable (imo) for it's tone. Levi doesn't set out to describe the Holocaust per se, but simply to say what happened to him personally. He doesn't draw general conclusions; instead he leaves the reader to do that for themselves. And he writes simply and honestly, with hardly any anger or self-pity.

OMG... its its its...not it's...

What is the world coming to? I'm turning illiterate! The shame!

agree with primo levi.

i found jude the obscure harrowing/depressing.

camus's the outsider is a bizarre read that isn't so much painful as horrifying, in its emotional coldness - compelling tho.

Prufrock

I had forgotten about Go Ask Alice, it was the maggots that did it for me.

Maggots?!

Like watching 'Requiem for a Dream'.

'we need to talk about kevin' - disturbing, but was hooked.

Beyond Belief - the moors murderers. Read this a few years ago (before I was a Mum) but have to say it left me feeling dirty & apalled at myself for having read it.

'Flowrs in the Attic'

(simply to marvel at the fact that someone could stoop so low...)

a child called it- dave pelzer
kathy's story- cant remember her name, its about the magdalen laundries and evil priests etc

Once in a house on fire- Andrea Ashworth

Just read my dd's copy of Goodnight Mister Tom - Michelle Magorian and it made me weep.

Chinese Cinderella - Adeline Yen Mae [or something like that] IMO A very sad but powerful book about how expectations can screw up a life.

Robin yes, 'Once.' is a great book. Blew me away.

Also 'Don't lets go to the dogs tonight'
Alexandra something-or-other

LOL MD, that was the book I thought of too!

Oops. The adult version is called falling leaves. Chinese Cinderella is the one written for teens.

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141304871/qid=1143584492/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/203-0043574-3207958\Amazon Link with plot synopsis}

Which one MS? The 'Dogs' one??

Oooops, didn't notice you had posted again I meant Flowers in the Attic.

lol
A rite of passage for women of a certain age...

Oops! I hated Falling Leaves (sorry). I didn't find I could empathise with the author at all.

Roots - Alex Haley

Kazuo Ishiguro NEver Let Me go

What's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch about - there is no synopsis on Amazon.

TIA
x

A day in the lie of a man who is a prisoner in a Soviet work camp....a Gulag. From the moment her gets up to the time he goes to bed. Very harrowing but an exceptional read and political important for its time.