And still I would read it again, much like I would have with Tuesdays with Morrie, The Painted Veil, and all the other books that wash this somber feeling over me once I'm through. Sometimes I just need to submerge myself into a sad story and cry until the tears over the character's plight mix in with the sadness in my own life. Before I know it, I cry for them, for myself, for this fantasy that's made me feel for something so unattached to me - compassion for people who don't even exist.
I felt the same as a child reading Where the Red Fern Grows and A Summer to Die and then decades later with The Road. It's slightly crazy, but I like getting wrapped up in this fictional suffering because it reminds me that yes, I still care, that I'm not yet jaded, that I haven't slipped back into the emotionless void I once knew, that I do possess this immense ability to feel and love. Sometimes it's to my detriment and only leads to more pain, but I will probably always let my heart weigh in on my decisions. It's too much a part of my being to completely remove it from the operating table no matter how much it might cloud judgment.
What have been your favorite sad stories? Hit me as I'm sure I'll be craving some more masochism soon enough. Last year, Flavorwire rounded up 10 devastatingly sad books and I've read that Flowers for Algernon could very well send me to an early grave.
Image: en.wikipedia.org