On the Culture desk we have talked about the films that have had us tearing up, and the songs we’ve sniffed along to (which prompted the ever excellent headline “tracks of our tears”). After recent hit A Little Life got readers wondering how their bodies could produce so many tears, it’s now time for books. Which titles have made you cry? Readers of the Tips, links and suggestions community shared some of theirs recently, as did our Twitter followers. Let us know yours in the comments, and we’ll publish a selection.
Here are some of your contributions so far:
I read Gloria Naylor's Mama Day back when Naylor was still writing. (What on earth happened to her?) Anyway, I have loved everything she ever wrote, but Mama Day was her last book. When I read the section that made me cry, my eyes swelled up. I had to stop. I could not continue reading because I had begun to sob.
The funny thing that happened was that my then-boyfriend walked in, saw me sitting at the table, crying my eyes out. He appeared panic-stricken. "What did I do," he asked. I had to assure him that I was crying over literature, and that he could never do anything that would hurt me as much as reading those pages did.
The Road, yes.
"If This is a Man" by Primo Levi. There is one particular passage where the captives are informed they are to be deported the next day. Life carries on as normally as possible, except the children receive no homework that night. Powerful stuff.
"... the kitchens remained open, the corvettes for cleaning worked as usual, and even the teachers of the little school gave lessons until the evening, as on other days. But that evening the children were given no homework.
All took leave from life in the manner which most suited them. Some praying, some deliberately drunk, others lustfully intoxicated for the last time. But the mothers stayed up to prepare the food for the journey with tender care, and washed their children and packed their luggage; and at dawn the barbed wire was full of children's washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundreds other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same?”
A Christmas Carol [by Charles Dickens] makes me blub more each time I read it – plus I’ve admitted before to shedding a small tear for Harold Biffen in New Grub Street [by George Gissing]... –judgeDAmNation
The Narrow Road to the Deep North [by Richard Flanagan] had me flinching and weeping, I knew what I was getting into .... but it did help me come to a closer understanding to my father and the men of his generation. [...] My mum couldn’t face it. The POW section of the book was terrible, truly terrible but what was most upsetting for me was the return to home and families. Heartbreaking. For all that I’m grateful it was written ... just something I needed to read. –magmillar
Bawling for books: which titles make you cry? https://t.co/qXTHXtbCYy I find re-reading Calvin & Hobbes as a parent quite poignant. *sniff*
— Christopher Edge (@edgechristopher) February 10, 2016
@GuardianBooks I cried so much reading Madeline Miller's 'The Song of Achilles' that I looked like I'd just fought in the Trojan War myself
— Amy Lim (@amyplusthree) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes pic.twitter.com/qfo4w84M5K
— Aulia K. (@Oliyya) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks 'Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter' by Pamela Jooste had me in bits near the end. Also 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy.
— In a flower dress (@InAFlowerDress) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks The Road Cormac McCarthy totally destroyed me as did #alittlelife
— leene (@bluemalu) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks Time Traveller's Wife, after I finished it on the train I ran home locked myself in a room and waited for the tears to come
— Lorraine Bridges (@L_BridgesCOT) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks Cry The Beloved Country, Alan Paton. Cried at beautiful descriptions, cried for the men that lose their sons, cried for SA
— London Nautical (@londonnautical) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake 😭😭
— ffateha (@ffateha_) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks Can't send a pic of my rather battered copy since I'm commuting, but Watership Down makes me cry every time.
— Jess E (@Faricu) January 13, 2016
@GuardianBooks A Monster Calls, by @Patrick_Ness. Floods of tears, every time.
— Miss Adkins (@RPS_Library) January 13, 2016
Which books have made you cry, and why? Share yours in the comments below
Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White. It's a loving and touching story about two friends - a naive, young pig, Wilbur, and a wise, kind spider, Charlotte. When Charlotte is dying, Wilbur is distraught and asks her:
“Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.'
"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.”
And E.B. White says this about friendship: “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”
I first cried in the middle of my grade 3 classroom, while sneak reading the book (I should have been doing math, I think). I have reread the story about every 10 years in the ensuing 4 decades, and after the death of two dear friends. And even today just finding my favourite quotes the tears pour down and I can feel the grief I first felt as a child. Gulp...