{"id":3723,"date":"2005-10-12T13:47:38","date_gmt":"2005-10-12T17:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2010-07-13T13:09:51","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T17:09:51","slug":"tear-jerkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"Tear-jerkers: Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a question from the indispensable I Love Books<\/a>:<\/p>\n

What books have made you cry?<\/a><\/p>\n

Now I differentiate between two different kinds of crying. Plenty of books have made me mist up, have brought a lump to my throat … but only a few have made me literally burst into sobs. Those burst-into-sobs books remain almost radio-active to me – those books are books I have only been able to read once. Once was enough. I didn’t just find the books sad. No. I found myself REVEALED by those books. I felt called OUT by those books. I sat in my OWN life, in my OWN experience … and felt a searing pain that was literally unbearable. Now THAT’S a good sad book. No distance between the story and my own revelations.<\/p>\n

But that’s why I probably won’t read those 3 books again. The revelations that came, the searing truth revealed … it was a once in a lifetime thing. And it hurt. I remember sitting on the floor in my room after finishing one of the books, and literally holding onto my heart, pressing down on my chest, because it HURT. I’m not talking about a metaphor. I am saying that my heart, the organ, actually HURT.<\/p>\n

So.<\/p>\n

Here is my 2-part answer to the 1-part question.<\/p>\n

Books that have made me mist over, tear up, get a lump in my throat, yadda yadda – I will probably add to this<\/b><\/p>\n

Brothers Karamazov – by Dostoevsky
\nThe Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon
\nMoby Dick – Herman Melville
\nWrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
\nGrapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
\nAngela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
\nIt – Stephen King<\/p>\n

Books that have literally made me burst into spontaneous stormy tears. Books that seared into my soul like a hot poker. There are only 3 on the list.<\/b><\/p>\n

Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
\nGeek Love – Katherine Dunn
\nAtonement – Ian McEwan<\/p>\n

I actually tried to re-read Atonement recently. I got through the first chapter and had to put it down again. Nope. I can’t read it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a question from the indispensable I Love Books: What books have made you cry? Now I differentiate between two different kinds of crying. Plenty of books have made me mist up, have brought a lump to my throat … … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19676,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/19676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}