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What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

I can't believe I've been so disturbed by a book!

63 replies

nkf · 26/04/2009 13:59

I recently read One Half of a Yellow Sun and it has distressed me beyond belief. I wept buckets and was upset for days. An overreaction? I need to get certain image out of my head but I can't.

Sorry. This is a bit of a mad post but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of where to "park" horrible thoughts.

OP posts:

policywonk · 04/05/2009 15:30

MysticMasseuse, I came on this thread wondering whether it was about Under the Skin. brrrr.

I'm like blueshoes - I try not to read books that I know are going to include really violent or sadistic stuff. I don't think it helps me to have that imagery in my head. (I hope I make up for this head-in-sand approach by engaging with the issues in other ways, IYKWIM.)

I had to stop reading 'Beloved' when I was pregnant because of the violence (had read it before and loved it - seemed to shake off the violent stuff much more easily when I was younger). Wouldn't even want to read it now.

TheMysticMasseuse · 04/05/2009 18:39

pw, that book is just so... i have no words for it. in fact i suppose it's a great book, but can a great book really be so unpleasant and disturbing? my uncle gave it to me after we were both enthusing about the crimson petal and the white, can you imagine the shock? normally i try to know what i am getting into but with Under the Skin i just had no idea, which i suppose is why it literally hit me like a ton of bricks...

Zorayda · 04/05/2009 19:20

Hester - I was the same with The Road. Finished it, but would never be able to put myself through reading it again! Amazingly written, but so well that it's emotionally harrowing.

Original poster

nkf · 04/05/2009 19:38

Wowoo. Do I reget reading it? On the whole, I think I do. It upset me very much. And yet...it is a fine book in many ways. I know this sounds pretentious but I think that good literature and good art often does have the power to shock. Bland stuff is often poor stuff. But I did find it hard to shake off. I mean I cried and cried and had to hug my daughter and, for several days, was shaken by it. It wasn't cathartic in any way. Just deep down miserable. That said, I don't think it will affect everyone like that. As you can see, many people on this thread love it and were able to process it better than I did. For me, it was a bad experience.

OP posts:

Takver · 04/05/2009 19:48

I have exactly the same problem with Will Self's books (Book of Dave and the one about chimpanzees) - they manage to be both deeply unpleasant and very convincingly real at the same time. Both stayed in my head for ages & wouldn't go away despite the fact that I didn't finish either. My only (unhelpful) answer has been not to read anything else by him.

cupofteaplease · 04/05/2009 19:55

I couldn't finish 'A Boy Called It'. It upset me so much I found myself feeling sick and crying when I thougt about it. A complete over reaction as the OP says, but nevertheless, some images never left me and I couldn't deal with finising it.

I often wonder what happened in the end...

maamajullah · 04/05/2009 20:14

I think u should read it. Wars r ugly and most times un-necessary. And maybe if we understand that we'll learn to sort things out in a peaceful and rational manner. The Ibos in Nigeria now do. They hate wars more than other tribes cause they know what it's truly like.

garden · 04/05/2009 22:22

i found thousand splendid suns diffcult too though loved it- glad i've read it, but echo those who say follow it with a lighter read...just been away and found a book inour flat called..how to kill your husband-kathy lette-not my usual read but light-hearted and made me laugh a few times. hope this thred helps.

Original poster

nkf · 04/05/2009 22:27

I think I will start a cheery thread asking for frothy suggestions. That darned book has bothered me more than I like. I had a stack of books to read and I find myself not starting them and worrying that they will be upsetting. At one stage, I even said I wasn't going to read anymore and would just watch The Apprentice instead. Oh dear, I do sound mad.

OP posts:

policywonk · 04/05/2009 22:29

How about re-reading an old favourite. I find Pride and Prejudice always does the trick (basically Cinderally, as Nancy Banks-Smith has pointed out). When I gave up on Beloved when I was pg (and also hyper-emetic) I turned to old Margaret Atwoods - was very comforting.

Mystic - I do think it's a great book!

policywonk · 04/05/2009 22:29

Cinderally? wtf?

maggiethecat · 04/05/2009 22:46

I started to read the book but put it away before the gory stuff (one of the main characters has just had her baby) - I probably started another book as I often do. I'll pick it up again tho. I believe Chimimanda may have a new book out.

WowOoo · 05/05/2009 08:13

Have started another book instead of this one now. I'm so weepy and over emotional at moment don't think I could handle anything too harrowing.

Ta for the warning. Glad I read this!

shootfromthehip · 05/05/2009 08:21

I have read lots of books that have done this to me, the first being a Katherine Cookson (don't berate me it was my Mum's) when I was about 8 and a dog died in a burning house. The most recent was that book 'Under the Skin' that some others on the thread are taking about, I took about a week to shake that one. I still shudder thinking about it. I think it's a massive credit to the author if a piece of literature can have such a massive impact on you.

travellingwilbury · 05/05/2009 08:24

Zorayda I was the same with The Road it was just so depressing and hopeless but I still loved reading it in a weird way as the writing was beautiful .

tillyfernackerpants · 05/05/2009 09:31

mystic, is this the book you were talking about?

I couldn't finish Under the Skin, thought it was well written but just too shocking for me.

After a hard read I find Katie Fforde is a good counterbalance.

tillyfernackerpants · 05/05/2009 09:49

Sorry, I meant Maria for the book link!

MrsEricBana · 05/05/2009 15:18

WowOoo - agree Half of a Yellow Sun is harrowing subject but it is completely fantastic - beautifully written and about a period I was embarassed to realise I knew nothing about. Fwiw I did not feel unduly disturbed by it and is definitely worth read when you feel up to it - it is very long too so def not a quickie. Having said that I have felt very disturbed by previous reads, partic American Psycho as someone said above, where I can't forget a partic image 15 years after I read it. Have also just finished reading the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which has upset me a lot, perhaps because the main characters are pretty much same age as ds (though def not a book for 9 year olds imo).
nkf - definitely a light read next - same here, though have We Need to Talk about Kevin by my bed, which prob doesn't fit the bill!

Sunshinemummy · 05/05/2009 15:29

My reaction to American Psycho was so strong I couldn't pick up the book - I had to hold it through a tea towel as if it was some nasty insect - and I slept with a knife under my pillow for a good few months afterwards. It's a vile book.

MayorNaze · 05/05/2009 15:52

oh gosh i read about 4 pages of beloved when dd was about 6 months old - if i had been joey the book would've gone in the freezer

MayorNaze · 05/05/2009 15:53

before dcs i also used to love love love stephen king's IT - i would never even pick it up now and am now having to sing lalalala in my head to distract myself from the plot...

Queenoftheharpies · 05/05/2009 16:37

Another vote for (or against, depending how you look at it) American Psycho. I found it incredibly upsetting - not least because it didn't (for me) have any artistic merit at all.

It wasn't particularly well written, it had no plot to speak of, it didn't make me think, it's a vacuous, nasty book.

I'd be really interested to hear an opposing view though - I've never met anyone that liked it.

Tickawicka · 05/05/2009 16:56

The one I felt like that about was Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares.

I felt sick to my stomach and still get upset when I think about it.

I dismembered the book and put it in the wheelie bin. I didn't want anyone else to find it (even at the landfill site!) and read it.

tillyfernackerpants · 05/05/2009 17:44

Queenoftheharpies, I've never met anyone who's read AP after the first time & tbh, its put me off reading any of his other stuff.

I read a short story collection of Irvine Welsh & again, its put me off reading any of his other stuff. One story in particular made me feel sick.

I do think though that there is a difference between books like Yellow Sun & Kite Runner & the AP's & Irvine Welsh. The former are telling people what actually happened, the atrocities that they describe are all the more shocking & upsetting because they did happen. The latter is just vile & gratuitous (sp?) with no merit.

Not sure if I've explained what I mean very well, hope you get what I mean.

MrsEricBana · 05/05/2009 20:46

That's exactly it Tilly, vile for the sake of it or unfortunately vile because depicting real atrocities. One could say the latter is more scary as has really happened, but the former is somehow worse as is gratuitous.

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