# Really Good Painful Reads



## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Tonight I'm going to start Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr.  If it's anything like Last Exit To Brooklyn, it's going to kill me emotionally and I'm going to fall in love with it.  I also just finished Ham on Rye by Bukowski, same experience.  These books are so gritty, unflinching and harsh that they can be painful and beautiful at once.  Anyone else read anything similar?


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## James Everington (Dec 25, 2010)

An older book, but 'Hunger' by Knut Hamsun had the same effect on me.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

_Leaving Las Vegas_ by John O'Brien (yes, they made it into the Nicolas Cage film) has the saddest ending that I've ever read, and it's not Ben's imevitable death that really hits, it's what Sara is left with.


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

I'm reading The Language of Flowers: A Novel. I'm about half-way through. It's an unbelievably sad story, but beautifully written. It's probably stupid of me to hope for a happy ending, but I do.


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## Sean Patrick Reardon (Sep 30, 2010)

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson


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## LaRita (Oct 28, 2008)

_The Dollmaker _ by Harriette Arnow. It's the story of an Appalachian woman and her family transplanted from the mountains to Detroit during WWII. It's a tragic but powerful story that has stayed with me since I first read it many years ago.

It's been enKindled, but the price is more than outrageous - $28 and change. When I first went looking for it, it was $12.99 and I decided to wait for the price to come down. Oops.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

1968, by Joe Haldeman.  Not available as an ebook, unfortunately.

I Never Sang for My Father, a play by Robert Anderson; this one, I think, outranks Death of a Salesman as the great American tragedy.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

Sarah's Key
I cried like a baby.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

A lot more books just got added to my TBR.  I'll throw out Bastard out of Carolina as well.  So many emotions with that book but it was unbelievably compelling.


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## christopherruz (May 5, 2012)

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts was also fantastic, even though I was aware of how the words "true story" were somewhat liberally applied.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

christopherruz said:


> Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts was also fantastic, even though I was aware of how the words "true story" were somewhat liberally applied.


See, and I found that to be one of the most confusing, dis-jointed, books I've ever read. And I _really_ wanted to like it.  I still don't really know what it was supposed to be about.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> See, and I found that to be one of the most confusing, dis-jointed, books I've ever read. And I _really_ wanted to like it.  I still don't really know what it was supposed to be about.


I've heard so many mixed things about Shantaram. I've heard it's amazing and terrible. I read the first few pages and couldn't get into it, mostly because of the narrator. Still may give it a try in the future though.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

I just finished The Poisonwood Bible last week, and it's been one of those books for me. It was so achingly tragic and complex, although in a good way, that it's one of those I have no idea how I would even begin to rate or review it. I haven't really been able to get excited about reading something new yet, either.


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## Gaia Revane (Jan 26, 2013)

_The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy. It's a very intensely disturbing and emotional post-apocalyptic novel. The entire time you're feeling this massive sense of loss and despair. It's painful to read (and the ending isn't exactly happy), but the prose is so beautiful that you have to keep going.

Also, not sure if it counts as it's a memoir and not fiction, but a book that always makes me emotional when I read it is _Night_ by Elie Wiesel. I doubt that it's been enKindled yet though.

I can't get enough of sad stories. I read (and write) so many of them


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## Sean Patrick Reardon (Sep 30, 2010)

christopherruz said:


> Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts was also fantastic, even though I was aware of how the words "true story" were somewhat liberally applied.


Shantaram was / still is one of the best novels I have ever read. It is a long read, but has an "epic" quality to it. Totally loved it. Thought there was a movie in the works, starring J. Depp, but look like it fell through.


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## Tshoe (Jan 31, 2013)

For me, Game of Thrones and sequels.  They're loooonnnngggg, they get you interested and excited about a character, and then he/she dies, you don't know if the "good guys" will win, or the "bad guys."  And technically, the "good guys" can be bad, and the "bad guys" can be good.  My husband asks me why I keep on plugging away at them.  Answer: I love them.  They are so well written and capture the reader so well.  I can put them down - I have to - I'd never get anything done otherwise.  But I always have to go pick them up again and keep going...


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## christopherruz (May 5, 2012)

Ann in Arlington said:


> See, and I found that to be one of the most confusing, dis-jointed, books I've ever read. And I _really_ wanted to like it.  I still don't really know what it was supposed to be about.


I don't understand what was confusing or disjointed about it. I understand when people dislike the narrator's style, but the novel is a straight line from prison escape to personal redemption. We're not talking Memento, here.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Gaia Revane said:


> _The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy. It's a very intensely disturbing and emotional post-apocalyptic novel. The entire time you're feeling this massive sense of loss and despair. It's painful to read (and the ending isn't exactly happy), but the prose is so beautiful that you have to keep going.
> 
> Also, not sure if it counts as it's a memoir and not fiction, but a book that always makes me emotional when I read it is _Night_ by Elie Wiesel. I doubt that it's been enKindled yet though.
> 
> I can't get enough of sad stories. I read (and write) so many of them


I loved The Road. It was so sparse but so incredibly enjoyable and dark. No Country for Old Men was great too.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Tshoe said:


> For me, Game of Thrones and sequels. They're loooonnnngggg, they get you interested and excited about a character, and then he/she dies, you don't know if the "good guys" will win, or the "bad guys." And technically, the "good guys" can be bad, and the "bad guys" can be good. My husband asks me why I keep on plugging away at them. Answer: I love them. They are so well written and capture the reader so well. I can put them down - I have to - I'd never get anything done otherwise. But I always have to go pick them up again and keep going...


I'm on book 3 and LOVE the series so far. LOVE.


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## Gaia Revane (Jan 26, 2013)

Libby13 said:


> I loved The Road. It was so sparse but so incredibly enjoyable and dark. No Country for Old Men was great too.


I haven't read _No Country for Old Men_ yet, but I've been meaning to. Have you read another book by the same author called _Blood Meridian_ by any chance? It's an ultra violent Western, just about as dark as _The Road_.


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## laa0325 (Feb 21, 2010)

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. This book has haunted me for years.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

When I was a teenager I read I Never Promised You A Rose Garden about a girl struggling with schizophrenia. It was poetic and painful at the same time as she shared this whole other world she created and which she preferred to reality. Another of those great "teen" novels along with The Outsiders and Bless the Beasts and the Children that were written in the 70s.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Gaia Revane said:


> I haven't read _No Country for Old Men_ yet, but I've been meaning to. Have you read another book by the same author called _Blood Meridian_ by any chance? It's an ultra violent Western, just about as dark as _The Road_.


I have not, but it is on the TBR. Looking forward to it.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Just added Plague Dogs and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden to my TBR.  I am going to be a busy girl.


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

A Fine Balance (Vintage International) by Rohinton Mistry did that for me. Heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. One of my all-time favorite books.


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## KMA (Mar 11, 2009)

Beloved by Toni Morrison. It is both gorgeous and excruciating.


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## HJanes (Feb 4, 2013)

Well, can't remember a book that made me cry, but I'm following a blog from a new writer that had her first novel translated to English recently and this entry is so beautiful and at the same time so sad...

http://pipaswonderland.blogspot.pt/#!/2013/01/normal.html

By the way, her book is very good.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

I didn't see an excerpt, but the little story she wrote for her baby was touching.


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## Filipa Fonseca Silva Author (Dec 10, 2012)

Libby13 said:


> I didn't see an excerpt, but the little story she wrote for her baby was touching.


It's the post named "Without you". Posted on January 14th.


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## Sean Patrick Reardon (Sep 30, 2010)

lmroth12 said:


> When I was a teenager I read I Never Promised You A Rose Garden about a girl struggling with schizophrenia. It was poetic and painful at the same time as she shared this whole other world she created and which she preferred to reality. Another of those great "teen" novels along with The Outsiders and Bless the Beasts and the Children that were written in the 70s.


OMG...Bless the Beasts and Children!....Loved this novel and the movie was so influential to me as a young teen. I mean come on, Will Robinson was so cool, and Cotton was such an awesome character. Very surprised that it never got remade, but it would be tough these days, with the Buffalo shoots and all the guns.


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## Leanne King (Oct 2, 2012)

_Room_, by Emma Donoghue. Very difficult to read in places, heartbreaking in others, but so beautifully written it's all worth it.


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## Red Dove (Jun 11, 2012)

_One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - because it's only one day and contemplating days like it strung together, one after the other is intolerable.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

HarryDayle said:


> _Room_, by Emma Donoghue. Very difficult to read in places, heartbreaking in others, but so beautifully written it's all worth it.


I started that but had to stop and wait for another time. I think I have to get myself ready for that book before I can really attack it.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

I want to read The Road, but I'm scared!


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

Anotherdreamer said:


> I want to read The Road, but I'm scared!


There is a scene in a basement that should frighten you. Totally worth it, but your fear is definitely well founded.


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Have you read Shot in the Heart?



It is the autobiography/memoir of one of the writers for Rolling Stone... who happens to also be the brother of a serial killer. It is an amazing study of the human psyche and how two brothers, brought up in the same household, could take their experiences to go in such divergent directions.

The other book that destroyed me was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.



It took me a couple tries to get into it. Push through the first fifty pages. Once you get past that point, it becomes heartbreaking and staggering and totally genius.

ETA: ANGELA'S ASHES! Oh, how could I forget that one! There is a reason why it was an international bestseller for so long. Absolutely haunting.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. A tough read, but a great book. It's the story of three generations of women who endured the insanity of 20th-century China.


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Avis Black said:


> Wild Swans by Jung Chang. A tough read, but a great book. It's the story of three generations of women who endured the insanity of 20th-century China.


I second this recommendation! It absolutely changed my view of the world.


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## MarcyB (Feb 10, 2013)

Children's books:  Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terabithia.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green



I just read this last week and it was amazing. Make sure you have plenty of tissues.


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## anna_masters (Feb 14, 2013)

I've also read a few things about Plague Dogs, but I couldn't really find the courage to read it after what I've read. Is it really that crushing?


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

anna_masters said:


> I've also read a few things about Plague Dogs, but I couldn't really find the courage to read it after what I've read. Is it really that crushing?


I read that as a teenager and don't remember it being particularly bad. Will have to look it up again, I think.


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

When I was young, I loved getting down in the pain and suffering, but now that I've lived a bit and experienced or witnessed some pain and suffering, I don't go there as much.

I always felt that Orwell's 1984 was a particularly rough book as was A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

In terms of physical pain, I've always cringed at Stephen King's Misery.

--
R.J. Spears


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## ElizabethStone (May 21, 2013)

Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon

The part where he talks about his relationship with his mother is guaranteed to start the waterworks.  Getting teary just thinking about it.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

AuthorDianaBaron said:


> 1984 is one of my favorite books of all time. Animal Farm too. I worry that as a society we're headed for those dystopian societies.


You're worried about the animals taking over? 

A little more seriously, Animal Farm is an allegory of Communism, and with a few exceptions, the world has survived and moved past that one, albeit not without some great suffering along the way. That does give me a little more hope for the future.


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## Dina (May 24, 2013)

Someone already mentioned _The Road_ and I second that. That story will stay with me always. I read it a few years ago and my mind still returns to it.

Bukowski's _Women_. Excellent writing and gritty. But how can you go wrong with Bukowski?

Also, I recently read _The Devil All the Time_ by Donald Ray Pollock. Very disturbing and made me want to shower afterwards.

One more that jumps to mind is Stephen King's _Pet Sematary_. An oldie, but it has created it's own little spot in my mind since I read it as a teen. I cannot go to Maine and not think about Micmac burial grounds and the line, "The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis." Absolutely disturbs me. I read it again shortly after my son turned four and the novel still horrified but it filled me with absolute sadness as well. I felt Louis's pain more.


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

I thought EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE was a painful read, although it had beautiful moments, as well.  My son DESPISED the book, but I found the narrator, Oskar Schell, to be believable, loveable, flawed, hurt.  It was the first fiction book I read that dealt with 9/11 and the way it affected individual lives.

Julia


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## MineBook (May 31, 2013)

Haruki Marukami "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" book - well writen in the begging and too hard story in the end.


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

Elie Wiesel's "Night."


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## Mahree Moyle (Jun 19, 2013)

Frank McCourt's books, "Angela's Ashes" and "Tis" are sad, but comical. Good stories. And true.


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## LillianB (Jul 7, 2013)

For me, that book was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I was done for weeks after.

-L


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## MineBook (May 31, 2013)

Book shocked me. Story about real slavery in 'dream' america... 
*"Uncle Tom's cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe*


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Tony Richards said:


> _Leaving Las Vegas_ by John O'Brien (yes, they made it into the Nicolas Cage film) has the saddest ending that I've ever read, and it's not Ben's imevitable death that really hits, it's what Sara is left with.


One of the saddest.
I read it as a paperback and the mention of it here had me wanting to read it again. Looks like the Kindle edition is the screenplay though, and not the book.


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## LovelynBettison (Aug 12, 2012)

My choices have already been mentioned in this thread, Leaving Las Vegas, The Poisonwood Bible, and The Kite Runner. I'd also like to add I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb to the list.



MineBook said:


> Haruki Marukami "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" book - well writen in the begging and too hard story in the end.


I thought I'd read every Haruki Marukami book that was translated into English, but I missed this one. I'm definitely putting it on my must read list.

There are lots of great books in this thread for me to add to my reading list.


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## cshoughton (Jul 10, 2013)

Roth's The Dying Animal. I started sobbing when Consuela danced. The book disarmed me. I'd been expecting more of the same sort of monologue material when the book hit me with that payload and transformed every word I'd read up to that point.

C.S.


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## cagnes (Oct 13, 2009)

I finished *Me Before You* this morning & I'm still in tears! 

Two other books that I recall having a hard time seeing the words through the tears were  &


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