Read it and weep: what books make you cry?
Posted by Kate on Jul 28, 2010
Kate was interested to see this article in Publishers Weekly about crying while reading.
The cathartic nature of a good children’s book (or adult book) cry is not to be undervalued, she thinks.
Kate was interested, though, that there’s an emphasis on sad books in the piece. Now, of course, sad books make Kate cry. Her first memory of crying at a children’s book is when her mother read her The Velveteen Rabbit from (how?) a Christmas edition of a woman’s magazine. Later, she remembers Charlotte’s Web (pictured here) made her cry a lot, and the The Snow Goose. And she remembers starting The Diary of Anne Frank aged about 11, and thinking it was fiction, and the enormous sadness of getting to the end, exacerbated, of course, by realising it wasn’t fiction. As a publisher, the sad book that made her cry most was Ways to Live Forever.
However, while sad books make Kate cry, she finds happy endings can be pretty blub-inducing things. She was absolutely fine through the loss of the precious picture and the car accident in A Dog So Small, but the moment that Ben realises that Brown is the dog for him is the part that she can’t type about without a little lump in the throat even now. And what about the return of the father in The Railway Children? As a publisher, the “happy ending” (sort of) that made her cry most was the one in Millions.
As an adult, Kate has discovered that reading aloud presents an even greater challenge than reading silently. She cannot read moving or sad or happy things to anyone without blubbing. This is quite incapacitating, both professionally and parentally. When she left Macmillan, she couldn’t complete her leaving speech because it concluded with a paragraph from the last page of A Gathering Light. She struggled to continue to address an audience at the Edinburgh Book Festival launch of A Little Piece of Ground after reading a quote from it.
And while one of Kate’s children is similarly afflicted, her other child cannot begin to understand why Kate cried when she read The Diddakoi or Once There Were Giants at bedtime, and poked incredulously (and sometimes painfully) at her tears.
Camilla says that the book that generated “uncontrollable sobbing” in her childhood was Jenny and has just admitted that she has to pause when she reads aloud the words, “‘I must not fail’, said the tiny snail,” in The Snail and the Whale.
The normally emotionally robust Imogen says that A Gathering Light, Private Peaceful, My Sister’s Keeper (she acknowledges embarrassing tears on a train), Lovely Bones (a book, by the way, that Kate can’t be doing with so we celebrate reading diversity here at Nosy Crow) and Tess of the D’Urbervilles all make her cry.
Deb nominates Bridge to Terabithia ,Shane and Flowers for Algernon.
Do please comment to tell us what books make you cry.
Comments (24)
I’m worse with music than books, but the book that made me cry most recently was Patrick Ness’s Monsters of Men.- and possible most voluminously, Jenny Downham’s Before I Die.
I also cried buckets at the end of The Time Traveller’s Wife, but in my defence I was 8 months pregnant at the time.
FlossieT Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
The two books that make me cry every time are by Rumer Godden: “Take Three Tenses: A Fugue in Time” and “China Court: The Hours of A Country House.”
It is interesting that both are stories involving a family’s relationship to its house, although the details couldn’t be more different.
Nicole Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Have just been pondering the list of books that make me and my teenager daughter Nellie cry and we’ve decided we both really need to read some comedy.
Her Mother’s Face surprised us by being an unexpected weepy – which was a shame as we both read it standing up in Waterstones (we did buy it in the end, honest)
Also Goodnight Mister Tom, Charlotte’s Web, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, Ways to Live Forever – even Guess How Much I Love You (though that really must be a nostalgia thing).
Oh and of course almost anything by Michael Morpurgo.
Paula Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Flossie T, I agree with you- Before I Die made me cry loads- I was HOWLING- and also The Time Traveller’s Wife gets me every time. I thought The Lovely Bones was awful sentimental rubbish though.
Films are much less likely to make me cry than books. I wonder why?
Emma M Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
After this post, I got lots of suggestions on Twitter, where I used the hashtag #booksthatmakeuscry
Kate Wilson Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
@kate – what you need is a twitter feed.
Paula Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
We know, Paula, we know re Twitter feed. Working on it as we speak. Watch this space.
Kate Wilson Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
I too was howling at “Before I Die”. Also Siobhan Dowd’s “A Swift Pure Cry”. Little Women too. As for films, any Studio Ghibli animation gets me every time!
Library Mice Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Oh loads!
Little Women always used to do it (the bit where Beth nearly dies), Watership Down, when Hazel leaves his body behind, more recently A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Time Travellers Wife. But a one that I can’t even think about without welling up is a short story in The Orchard Children’s Treasury, A Balloon for Grandad, by Nigel Gray/Jane Ray which I used to try to read to my kids. In my defence my Dad had just died when I first read it…
Sue R Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
The first time I read Ways to Live Forever it was tear inducing. The second time was much much worse! An amazing book. Second nomination would be Sad Book.
Jet rattled off a load (cries at the first sign of a book), but The Book Thief, The Time Travellers Wife and My Sisters Keeper were the only three I can remember!
Chris Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Ok, I’m hesitating to post this, but my husband cried reading The Bridges of Madison County…
Anonymous Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Dear Anonymous
Thank you for sharing. All sobathon confessions welcome. Great you have a husband who would consider moving out of traditional husband comfort-zone to read Bridges…
Kate Wilson Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Tuesday’s with Morrie and Just one more Day, both by Mitch Albion – beautiful books and must reads for anyone grieving.
Katie Hague Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
Two books spring immediately to mind. The first is a Victorian children’s novel called “At the Back of the North Wind” – highly sentimental Victorian stuff but I loved it. Read it many times.
Also loved “The Little Prince” – a story of great depth.
No doubt with time I can think of more!
Dianne Spencer Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
“Love That Dog” – so sad. That always makes me cry.
Nikki Wednesday July 28, 2010 #
I have sobbed at many books and shan’t attempt to list them, but perhaps the first was Tom’s Midnight Garden: Tom bereft and screaming out Hattie’s name. Conversely the book that left me too devastated/changed for tears as a child was The Mark Of The Horse Lord.
Simon P Thursday July 29, 2010 #
The Mark of the Horse Lord! Great book! My favourite of hers was The Lantern Bearers. No! I mean Tristan and Iseult. No! I mean The Lantern Bearers.
Kate Wilson Thursday July 29, 2010 #
I remember crying at Peter Ackroyd’s The House of Doctor Dee (an author not normally noted for emotion). And also Livi Michael’s children’s novel The Angel Stone. Incidentally, both books feature John Dee as a character, though that obviously wasn’t what induced the tears. I think it was the fact that both authors momentarily freed their lead characters from the shackles of the time and place they belonged to, giving them a sense of perspective that it’s very rare for humans to feel. I’ve always found that moving. Similarly, a very good episode of Dr Who can have the same effect on me.
Barry Timms Friday July 30, 2010 #
Reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’ to Sam made me cry frequently, more because of the beauty of the language than what was happening, ‘tho the end is sad. The last chapter of ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ has the same effect. Also a Rosemary Sutcliff book called ‘Sun Horse, Moon Horse’.
Philip Reeve Friday July 30, 2010 #
Well, if we’re talking books that make you cry, Philip, I think that the ending of Here Lies Arthur, “And the name of that ship, the name of that ship is called, Hope“… (disappears to blow nose and can go on no further)
Kate Wilson Friday July 30, 2010 #
No contest. Last paragraph of Winnie The Pooh. In fact, all I have to do is think about it… excuse me a minute…
Lev Parikian Friday July 30, 2010 #
I weep buckets over too many books to list (and films and opera—I’m the one when when the lights go up with the puffy red eyes and rivulets of mascara) but I vividly recall reading Charlotte’s Web 25 years ago to my then 5 year old son on a plane, me with tears rolling down my cheeks and he sobbing heartbrokenly “but wh-why did she have to d-ie?”. (and incidentally being cross with Kate who had recommended it but hadn’t warned me about the ending)
Agnes Saturday July 31, 2010 #
As It Is in Heaven by Nial Williams. His writing is sweet poetry and I sobbed every time I read it. Cry Freedom, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Frances Farmer – Will There be a Morning, Sybil and a couple by Lee Weatherly.
And I agree. I’ve sobbed over Tuesdays with Morrie – definitely a book I hugged for a while. And, oh my gosh, I remember reading My Sister’s Keeper and sobbing on one page then laughing on the next. I was so vocal my hubbie couldn’t concentrate on his book. It was so painful to read I swore I’d never read another of Jodi’s books and have since read ten. Hee hee. What can I say? When a writer grips you like that, you have to go back for more. I agree with The Kite Runner and The Time Traveller’s Wife too. I couldn’t see the words for the tears.
liane carter Sunday August 29, 2010 #
Really sorry it took so long to post this. Liked “I couldn’t see the words for the tears”.
Kate Wilson Thursday September 2, 2010 #