Last miserable book you read

[whatausername]

What was the last book you read that left you thinking what a miserable story it was?

For me it was Flaubert's The Three Tales. That left me in need of a glass of wine and some comedy.

omg yes! I was worn out by the end.

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. An alcoholic writing about the last day in the life of an alcoholic. Great literature it might be but to me it was just relentlessly miserable self-indulgent alcoholic rambling…

Summer by Edith Wharton

A Little Life. Just unrelenting.

I really liked this. Perhaps it's because it made me feel better about my own life!

I haven't read Jude the Obscure but my cousin and I went to see the film in the 90s, starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. We were happy when we went in then traumatised when we left the cinema! Was brutal.

I avoid any sad or depressing books but I did read Girl on the Train and absolutely hated it .

I abandoned Shuggie Bain and The Poisonwood Bible as I found them depressing and grim.

I enjoyed The Secret History and The Goldfinch though!

Jude the Obscure is almost comically horrible and depressing, as is Tess of the D’Ubervilles

A Little Life is utterly revolting misery porn, that turns self-harm, rape and child sexual abuse into grubby little dangled promises of more detailed revelations to keep the reader reading. Honestly, it reads like some kind of out of control creative writing exercise involving challenging yourself to see how much misery and abuse you can heap onto a single character in 120,000 words.

The answer is 'lots'.

A Little Life was relentless in its misery

A Fine Balance. It's utterly brilliant, though.

Trust by Herman Diaz. Winner of this year’s Pulitzer.
Miserable and arse-puckeringly intellectual.
The very worst sort of miserable read.

I absolutely loved "A Little Life" and didn't really find it that sad 😯I'm thinking of re-reading it soon. I have a swinging brick where most people have a heart though.

Having said that, I found Yanagihara's first book "The People in the Trees" utterly depressing. It's the only book I've ever actually cried at.

Recently, I read Siri Hustvedt's "What I Loved" which is beautifully written but utterly miserable. I loved it.
I also read "My Dark Vanessa" which, though it deals with themes of sexual abuse, I wouldn't describe as miserable but there's most definitely a sensation of being dragged down into a depressing and miserable situation. Again, I loved it.

I also found "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro to have a sad and kind of hopeless atmosphere running through it.

Years ago I read Sophie's Choice. I hadn't seen the film and only had a vague idea of the story. OMG it was upsetting. It must be 25 years since I've read it and it still stays with me. I often find myself thinking about it.

I would add it is very well written.

I must have read miserable novels since Donna Tartt's The Little Friend, but it is still the go-to book of misery in my mind. Deep, hopeless, unredeemed suffering on the part of a wonderful girl who is working so intensely to find ways to resolve a tragedy. Everything she does just makes things worse. I still have a kind of existential panic attack at the thought of it.

Tartt's The Goldfinch is not much less devastating. The author asks us to look at what would count as redemption, restoration. And shows us something that is only a little bit better than no restoration at all.

@KStockHERO

Agree that People In The Trees is worse than A Little Life

@GoodOldEmmaNess

The Little Friend counts as one of the worst books I've ever read

I slogged my way through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian over the summer, mainly because Harold Bloom considered it a masterpiece. The prose is sublime, but god is it bleak. It took me a week to recover. I ended up reading favourite passages from P. G. Wodehouse, Douglas Adams and Jane Austen just to sort of 'cleanse' myself.

McCarthy makes Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, or the poetry of Philip Larkin, seem light and fluffy.

"I'm gald my mom died", from Jeanette McCurdy 😰

Just read Olive Kitteridge. It does have some dark themes but is also at the same time an uplifting book.

I tend to avoid unrelentingly miserable books.

This one. Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with a history/family history of:
Alcoholism
poverty
domestic violence
coercive control
sexual assault/harassment

but I did read it and it was well written and very observant. Perhaps some of our MPs should read it.

I agree with 'A Little Life' upthread. Unremitting and written around a testimony which reads like a creative writing exercise. And people, they made it into a Westend play! Currently stalled on 'Demon Copperhead'. At half way point I got covid and it started to prey on my mind during the insomniac nights. But enjoyed 'Unsheltered' and read 'The Poisonwood Bible' long ago. I found I couldn't reread Tartt's Secret History. I don't find Sarah Walters very enjoyable either - 'The Little Stranger' is very nerve jangling!

I stopped reading Strange Sally Diamond as the flash backs were horrible.

I was the same -I know I’m a prudish old bat but the mothers behaviour was so sad, miserable and dispiriting I only read about a half of the book.
And the author now lives in NY. Not nice to stuff your mother that way.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. I hadn't read it before - first book in a while that's had me sobbing.