Literature for the sad
April 28, 2011 2:50 AM Subscribe
What recommendations do you have for literature with tones and themes of sadness/loneliness/inadequacy/anxiety/perfectionism/depression/alienation/dissatisfaction? (Not all in a single book, of course).
I'm currently going through a difficult period in my life and suddenly feel like reading a book. I'm looking for writing that reflect the emotions I've been having, so I can reach a sort of catharsis while at the same time enriching myself through literature. It doesn't HAVE to be literature, but I'd prefer more 'serious' works, especially ones with beautiful style. Any recommendations?
I'm currently going through a difficult period in my life and suddenly feel like reading a book. I'm looking for writing that reflect the emotions I've been having, so I can reach a sort of catharsis while at the same time enriching myself through literature. It doesn't HAVE to be literature, but I'd prefer more 'serious' works, especially ones with beautiful style. Any recommendations?
I'm fairly sure Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace would give you all that in a single book (albeit a big one).
posted by maybeandroid at 3:33 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by maybeandroid at 3:33 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Life after God - Douglas Coupland.
posted by seanyboy at 3:44 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by seanyboy at 3:44 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm a big fan of DFW and Camus, but neither of the books suggested ranks very high on the 'catharsis' scale.
Check out this earlier AskMe, and the links therein.
Or read some Vonnegut.
posted by rokusan at 3:54 AM on April 28, 2011
Check out this earlier AskMe, and the links therein.
Or read some Vonnegut.
posted by rokusan at 3:54 AM on April 28, 2011
Anything by Carson McCullers
Anything by Franz Kafka
Anything by Lydia Davis
posted by aimeedee at 3:54 AM on April 28, 2011
Anything by Franz Kafka
Anything by Lydia Davis
posted by aimeedee at 3:54 AM on April 28, 2011
This falls in the anything by Carson McCullers mention, but I was specifically going to recommend The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 4:37 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 4:37 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you've not read Invisible Man by Harlan Ellison, you absolutely should.
posted by drlith at 5:00 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by drlith at 5:00 AM on April 28, 2011
Seconding Infinite Jest. It really will have it all.
The Dice Man by Luke Reinhart, if you want to laugh your way through this.
Bending the question just a little bit into the "speculative non-fiction" world, there is Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, which is about what would happen to Earth if all the humans died or disappeared. I found it strangely comforting.
posted by davidjmcgee at 5:04 AM on April 28, 2011
The Dice Man by Luke Reinhart, if you want to laugh your way through this.
Bending the question just a little bit into the "speculative non-fiction" world, there is Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, which is about what would happen to Earth if all the humans died or disappeared. I found it strangely comforting.
posted by davidjmcgee at 5:04 AM on April 28, 2011
Another vote for Douglas Coupland. Pretty much everything he does touches on those themes, especially loneliness.
posted by pie ninja at 5:15 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by pie ninja at 5:15 AM on April 28, 2011
Running Away and Making Love by Jean-Philippe Toussaint. Running Away, in particular, is a beautiful book. Both books follow two characters (and unnamed narrator and his girlfriend, Marie), and cover pretty much all of the themes you requested. They are slight, under 200 pages each, and exquisitely written.
I think I suggest Toussaint in almost every book thread because I adore him and he's an author not a lot of North Americans are familiar with and I think everyone should read his books. You can't go wrong with these two titles; I think they'll give you exactly what you are looking for.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 5:44 AM on April 28, 2011
I think I suggest Toussaint in almost every book thread because I adore him and he's an author not a lot of North Americans are familiar with and I think everyone should read his books. You can't go wrong with these two titles; I think they'll give you exactly what you are looking for.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 5:44 AM on April 28, 2011
You are talking about my favorite mood for literature to evoke. Great question, although I'm sorry you were inspired by difficult times to post it.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers
Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman (which may not make sense outside of the greater Sandman series, but is always a good re-read)
A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (if a bit explicitly Christian)
Cartoon Physics by Nick Flynn (a poem)
Making Things Whole by Mark Strand (a poem)
It's not literature per se, but Nick Cave's spoken word piece, "The Secret Life of the Love Song" is a lecture on the concept of Saudade expressed in contemporary music. The concept may approximate what you are feeling.
posted by gauche at 5:59 AM on April 28, 2011
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers
Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman (which may not make sense outside of the greater Sandman series, but is always a good re-read)
A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (if a bit explicitly Christian)
Cartoon Physics by Nick Flynn (a poem)
Making Things Whole by Mark Strand (a poem)
It's not literature per se, but Nick Cave's spoken word piece, "The Secret Life of the Love Song" is a lecture on the concept of Saudade expressed in contemporary music. The concept may approximate what you are feeling.
posted by gauche at 5:59 AM on April 28, 2011
drlith, Invisible Man is by Ralph Ellison, not Harlan Ellison. However, it is a great recommendation. As is Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream.
posted by xenophile at 6:12 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by xenophile at 6:12 AM on April 28, 2011
For most of the themes listed, but especially perfectionism and the ways it can twist a person, I recommend William Gaddis's The Recognitions.
posted by rudster at 6:20 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by rudster at 6:20 AM on April 28, 2011
I'm not a huge fan of his work, but I was going to say Douglas Coupland too.
posted by Ted Maul at 6:23 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by Ted Maul at 6:23 AM on April 28, 2011
-Colin Wilson, The Outsider
-dear Lord anything by Jean Rhys (I favor Voyage in the Dark and Good Morning, Midnight)
-Thomas Hardy, The Mayor Of Casterbridge (inadequacy, envy, pride, epic self-sabotage)
-John Berryman's Dream Songs (this is a good one)
-Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Terrible Sonnets" (one sample)
-TH White's Once and Future King
posted by stuck on an island at 6:24 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
-dear Lord anything by Jean Rhys (I favor Voyage in the Dark and Good Morning, Midnight)
-Thomas Hardy, The Mayor Of Casterbridge (inadequacy, envy, pride, epic self-sabotage)
-John Berryman's Dream Songs (this is a good one)
-Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Terrible Sonnets" (one sample)
-TH White's Once and Future King
posted by stuck on an island at 6:24 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Margaret Atwood made an entire career out of writing about sadness/loneliness/inadequacy/anxiety/perfectionism/depression/alienation/dissatisfaction. (And some irritability, repressed anger, and repressed sexuality. too.)
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:24 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:24 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
despite its title, Edith Wharton's House of Mirth is one of the most crushing books of all time.
(if you haven't read To the Lighthouse, though, read that first, because it is one of the best books of all time.)
posted by dizziest at 6:29 AM on April 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
(if you haven't read To the Lighthouse, though, read that first, because it is one of the best books of all time.)
posted by dizziest at 6:29 AM on April 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
I also came in to suggest Margaret Atwood, particularly Cat's Eye. Also, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen fits your description to me, and got me through some particularly bad times.
posted by aiglet at 6:41 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by aiglet at 6:41 AM on April 28, 2011
Slightly cliched choice, but I found a lot of those themes present in Franzen's The Corrections, and they struck a real chord with my mood at the time.
posted by crocomancer at 6:43 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by crocomancer at 6:43 AM on April 28, 2011
Almost anything by Herman Hesse - but I'd probably go with Peter Camenzind as that launched his bizarre literary career of characters searching for themselves.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:46 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:46 AM on April 28, 2011
Life after God - Douglas Coupland.
Another vote for this. It's also a *lot* shorter than many of the other recommendations.
posted by DigDoug at 6:50 AM on April 28, 2011
Another vote for this. It's also a *lot* shorter than many of the other recommendations.
posted by DigDoug at 6:50 AM on April 28, 2011
Two very different suggestions:
"Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton
and
"Under the Volcano" by Malcolm Lowry
Either will knock you flat. Both, and you may not get up.
Great books!
posted by fivesavagepalms at 6:55 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton
and
"Under the Volcano" by Malcolm Lowry
Either will knock you flat. Both, and you may not get up.
Great books!
posted by fivesavagepalms at 6:55 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Anything Sylvia Plath (her only novel was The Bell Jar though)
posted by astapasta24 at 7:01 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by astapasta24 at 7:01 AM on April 28, 2011
If you want to read about loneliness and the destructive power of perfectionism, it's hard to beat Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.
posted by zoetrope at 7:07 AM on April 28, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by zoetrope at 7:07 AM on April 28, 2011 [4 favorites]
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
posted by rabbitsnake at 7:11 AM on April 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by rabbitsnake at 7:11 AM on April 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
posted by timsneezed at 7:20 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by timsneezed at 7:20 AM on April 28, 2011
Per Petterson might fit the bill. Out Stealing Horses and especially To Siberia.
posted by doctord at 7:32 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by doctord at 7:32 AM on April 28, 2011
Read Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. Excellent book. Trades in issues of abandonment, loss, and listlessness with a comforting (but not condescending) tone of existential bildungsroman. Runs the gamut from unutterably melancholic to hilarious to bizarre.
posted by fifthrider at 7:41 AM on April 28, 2011
posted by fifthrider at 7:41 AM on April 28, 2011
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The very definition of crushing.
posted by aclevername at 8:24 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
The very definition of crushing.
posted by aclevername at 8:24 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard tore me up when I read it--loneliness, inadequacy, depression, anxiety, dissatisfaction and alienation all in one go.
Joyce Carol Oates: We Were the Mulvaneys is about people desperately trying to give the appearance of being this perfect family when in fact they are all devastated by a Secret they are forbidden even to discuss.
One I haven't read, but am considering, that also has the themes you are looking for:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. A shy, introspective, alienated freshman coping with sex, drugs and the suicide of a friend.
posted by misha at 8:58 AM on April 28, 2011
Joyce Carol Oates: We Were the Mulvaneys is about people desperately trying to give the appearance of being this perfect family when in fact they are all devastated by a Secret they are forbidden even to discuss.
One I haven't read, but am considering, that also has the themes you are looking for:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. A shy, introspective, alienated freshman coping with sex, drugs and the suicide of a friend.
posted by misha at 8:58 AM on April 28, 2011
Michael Ondaatje- The English Patient or Anil's Ghost.
Arundhati Roy- The God of Small Things.
Anne Michaels- Fugitive Pieces.
Nth'ing Per Petterson and Virginia Woolf.
posted by questionsandanchors at 9:12 AM on April 28, 2011
Arundhati Roy- The God of Small Things.
Anne Michaels- Fugitive Pieces.
Nth'ing Per Petterson and Virginia Woolf.
posted by questionsandanchors at 9:12 AM on April 28, 2011
No mentions of The Man Without Qualities?
Also, anything by Dostoevsky.
Hard seconds for Infinite Jest, Camus, and Gaddis.
Also: Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear.
Another huge second for Hunger, by Knut Hamsum.
Steinbeck, generally.
Metamorphosis, Kafka.
And Borges.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:48 AM on April 28, 2011
Also, anything by Dostoevsky.
Hard seconds for Infinite Jest, Camus, and Gaddis.
Also: Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear.
Another huge second for Hunger, by Knut Hamsum.
Steinbeck, generally.
Metamorphosis, Kafka.
And Borges.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:48 AM on April 28, 2011
Dostoevsky! Especially Notes From Underground, but also Crime & Punishment. If you haven't read him yet he seems like a stiff old Russian dead guy blathering on about victorian values and it sounds really heavy and hard; but just pick up a copy of his work at the library and read a few pages; it's almost shockingly relevant, psychologically modern, and enthralling, I promise.
Perhaps also No Exit by Sartre, if you're interested in plays- it's short and you can find it online. Well worth a read.
Lost Horizon by James Hilton! Gorgeous novel, very much about loneliness and alienation in the wake of WW2.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Some say it's better than Jane Eyre, and it's definitely more about loneliness. The heroine is an orphan and a foreigner struggling with unrequited love.
Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. Another little-known novel, a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. I found it deeply moving.
posted by Nixy at 10:30 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Perhaps also No Exit by Sartre, if you're interested in plays- it's short and you can find it online. Well worth a read.
Lost Horizon by James Hilton! Gorgeous novel, very much about loneliness and alienation in the wake of WW2.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Some say it's better than Jane Eyre, and it's definitely more about loneliness. The heroine is an orphan and a foreigner struggling with unrequited love.
Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. Another little-known novel, a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. I found it deeply moving.
posted by Nixy at 10:30 AM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Jack Gilbert's poetry; my particular favorite collections are Monolithos, The Great Fires, and Refusing Heaven.
(An example, because he's just so worth it:
I Imagine the Gods
I imagine the gods saying, We will
make it up to you. We will give you
three wishes, they say. Let me see
the squirrels again, I tell them.
Let me eat some of the great hog
stuffed and roasted on its giant spit
and put out, steaming, into the winter
of my neighborhood when I was usually
too broke to afford even the hundred grams
I ate so happily walking up the cobbles,
past the Street of the Moon
and the Street of the Birdcage-Makers,
the Street of Silence and the Street
of the Little Pissing. We can give you
wisdom, they say in their rich voices.
Let me go at last to Hugette, I say,
the Algerian student with her huge eyes
who timidly invited me to her room
when I was too young and bewildered
that first year in Paris.
Let me at least fail at my life.
Think, they say patiently, we could
make you famous again. Let me fall
in love one last time, I beg them.
Teach me mortality, frighten me
into the present. Help me to find
the heft of these days. That the nights
will be full enough and my heart feral.)
The current British Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, writes in a very raw and non-lyric kind of way, as does American poet Anne Sexton.
The plays of Sarah Ruhl, particularly Melancholy Play.
I also like to listen to this poem as well ("Church of the Broken Axe Handle," by Derrick C. Brown), which is better for the performance of it and always just shatters me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZzhuVmG8Y#t=1m00s
posted by myownlostrib at 11:38 AM on April 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
(An example, because he's just so worth it:
I Imagine the Gods
I imagine the gods saying, We will
make it up to you. We will give you
three wishes, they say. Let me see
the squirrels again, I tell them.
Let me eat some of the great hog
stuffed and roasted on its giant spit
and put out, steaming, into the winter
of my neighborhood when I was usually
too broke to afford even the hundred grams
I ate so happily walking up the cobbles,
past the Street of the Moon
and the Street of the Birdcage-Makers,
the Street of Silence and the Street
of the Little Pissing. We can give you
wisdom, they say in their rich voices.
Let me go at last to Hugette, I say,
the Algerian student with her huge eyes
who timidly invited me to her room
when I was too young and bewildered
that first year in Paris.
Let me at least fail at my life.
Think, they say patiently, we could
make you famous again. Let me fall
in love one last time, I beg them.
Teach me mortality, frighten me
into the present. Help me to find
the heft of these days. That the nights
will be full enough and my heart feral.)
The current British Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, writes in a very raw and non-lyric kind of way, as does American poet Anne Sexton.
The plays of Sarah Ruhl, particularly Melancholy Play.
I also like to listen to this poem as well ("Church of the Broken Axe Handle," by Derrick C. Brown), which is better for the performance of it and always just shatters me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZzhuVmG8Y#t=1m00s
posted by myownlostrib at 11:38 AM on April 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
For huge, sweeping themes of alienation, sadness and loss, Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I think it's definitely not for everyone, but I read it once over ten years ago and still have whole passages memorized.
posted by frobozz at 1:35 PM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by frobozz at 1:35 PM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
I really liked Mary Rakow's The Memory Room, which moves through a woman's mental collapse and the slow, slow process of pulling herself together again. it is a very beautifully tender novel.
which is something that Anne Carson also does well -- "The Glass Essay" from Glass, Irony, and God and The Beauty of the Husband are both lovely meditations on loss and desperate aloneness.
Agota Kristof's trilogy -- The Notebook/The Proof/The Third Lie -- is bleak and terrible and weirdly inspiring; it's available in a single volume and is one of my favourite books.
Marie Redonnet's early work, too -- Hotel Splendid especially, though I think that those are hard to find these days.
Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes, manages to be both deeply despairing and at the same time joyously exuberant. if you can imagine yourself charmed by rambling, nonsensical monologues it is well worth reading.
and in any list of books to do with sadness, Beckett definitely deserves mention. I think Murphy, his first novel, comes the closest to what you're after.
and some of the writers already mentioned are among my favourites: Murakami (especially Norwegian Wood), Toussaint, Lydia Davis (especially The End of the Story), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
posted by spindle at 2:12 PM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
which is something that Anne Carson also does well -- "The Glass Essay" from Glass, Irony, and God and The Beauty of the Husband are both lovely meditations on loss and desperate aloneness.
Agota Kristof's trilogy -- The Notebook/The Proof/The Third Lie -- is bleak and terrible and weirdly inspiring; it's available in a single volume and is one of my favourite books.
Marie Redonnet's early work, too -- Hotel Splendid especially, though I think that those are hard to find these days.
Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes, manages to be both deeply despairing and at the same time joyously exuberant. if you can imagine yourself charmed by rambling, nonsensical monologues it is well worth reading.
and in any list of books to do with sadness, Beckett definitely deserves mention. I think Murphy, his first novel, comes the closest to what you're after.
and some of the writers already mentioned are among my favourites: Murakami (especially Norwegian Wood), Toussaint, Lydia Davis (especially The End of the Story), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
posted by spindle at 2:12 PM on April 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Ooh, this looks like the syllabus for the Modernism class I'm taking right now. You might enjoy Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, E.M. Forster's Howard's End, and Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse. I'll throw in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier because it fits your description, but it wasn't my favorite.
All the above books explore how humans can connect, if we can connect at all.
posted by yaymukund at 3:18 PM on April 28, 2011
All the above books explore how humans can connect, if we can connect at all.
posted by yaymukund at 3:18 PM on April 28, 2011
Michael Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs. He describes himself as a "failure," Pulitzer and all.
posted by tangaroo at 3:38 PM on April 28, 2011
posted by tangaroo at 3:38 PM on April 28, 2011
Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight hits a number of your themes. Hungarians generally tend to be pretty good with depression/ loneliness.
posted by wandering steve at 7:57 PM on April 28, 2011
posted by wandering steve at 7:57 PM on April 28, 2011
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ...or most any of his books, really
and either Franny and Zooey or Nine Stories (or both) by J.D. Salinger
I heartily endorse previously mentioned The Road, Margaret Atwood books, and Never Let Me Go
Possibly also Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chiamanda Ngozi Adiche
posted by nile_red at 1:29 AM on May 1, 2011
and either Franny and Zooey or Nine Stories (or both) by J.D. Salinger
I heartily endorse previously mentioned The Road, Margaret Atwood books, and Never Let Me Go
Possibly also Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chiamanda Ngozi Adiche
posted by nile_red at 1:29 AM on May 1, 2011
On Margaret Atwood: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood for post-apocalyptic sci-fi (with emphasis on people, relationships, melancholia), and The Blind Assassin (for not-sci-fi with emphasis on people, relationships, melancholia, and regret)
posted by nile_red at 1:33 AM on May 1, 2011
posted by nile_red at 1:33 AM on May 1, 2011
Someone mentioned King Lear above. I would recommend A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, which is a retelling of the story of Lear, set in 1979 Iowa farmland. Very good, everything you're looking for.
posted by cheshirecat718 at 5:28 PM on May 2, 2011
posted by cheshirecat718 at 5:28 PM on May 2, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zachawry at 3:25 AM on April 28, 2011