When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.The New York Times Book Review has this column every week where a writer is asked a bunch of questions such as what books are on your night stand, what’s the last book that made you laugh, what was the last book that made you masturbate? This week, the novelist Diane Johnson was asked, among other things, what was the last book that made her cry. She replied, “I’m a hardhearted professional writer — I’m always more interested in how it’s done. It was probably Anna Karenina when I was sixteen.”
I’m with her on that. I don’t read so much as study. I care more about the prose than the subject. I like to get under the hood. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good cry. I honestly can’t remember the last book that made me cry.
What was the last book that made you cry.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Betsy Lerner 
This is Happiness, Niall Williams.
when cheryl strayed had to kill her dead mother’s horse i heave-sobbed. So well written.
—in her memoir “Wild”
angela’s ashes
1 dead in attic by Chris Rose
The Grapes of Wrath (just re-read it, balled)
I read Road Ends by Mary Lawson last week. As soon as I finished the final paragraph, the tears came.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
Wow, so this made me feel better. I’ve often thought I’m too unemotional to be a writer – too analytical. Too busy dissecting, and tinkering.
I had to go through Goodreads to find the book that truly made me jerk cry. B/c a few sniffles, or a tear isn’t crying. The book was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and while I realize now that ending maybe, just maybe could’ve been done differently and better, it’s still the book that had me squalling. The animals – DOGS – will get me every time.
The Lovely Bones.
And I agree with Martha – the horse scene in Wild.
I think there was a scene in the first half of The Overstory that hit me pretty hard in the feels last year. I too like to get under the hood, but the best is when I forget I’m there.
(After which, of course, I have to go back and re-read to see how they made me forget. But still, that first time through…)
Old friend!
Thank you for opening this up for suggestions. I love a good cathartic book-cry.
Jane Smiley’s “The Age of Grief.” I first read it maybe thirty years ago. I don’t remember if it made me cry then, but it probably did. I re-read it last week and it sure enough made me cry last week. Bawled like the heartbroke child I’ve always been.
Hamnet. The death scene.