Comments on: giggles and tears

By: lane

lane — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:37:28 +0000

I laugh out loud all the time reading David Foster Wallace. I can open to any page in Infinite Jest and be drop-kicked by his sardonic wit, his observations, his genius level command of the English language and all it’s quirks and quarks. Now though that amazed laughter has turned to sobs in the face if the loss of him from this life. totally rolled around on the floor in a perplexing admixture of delight and grief when i read hi piece on Federrer.

Then there’s the emotional stuff, I was destroyed, absolutely demolished and torn to pieces by Audrey Neifenegger’s TIme Traveler’s Wife. Holy Crap! some really really really good writing and probably the most heartbreakingly beautiful romantic depictions in all of the literature.

By: molly

molly — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:56:48 +0000

bastard out of carolina totally wrecked me. the TV movie, not so much.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:35:36 +0000

I did get misty-eyed at the end of Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book. Endings like that get me.

By: Adamm

Adamm — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:55:16 +0000

I always feel intensely happy while reading, and for a bit after I’ve finished reading, Salinger’s Raise High the Roofbeams Carpenters/Introduction to Seymour. Everything just seems ok for a while.

I also have strong reactions to Kafka (who Buddy Glass, if not Salinger himself, was also a big fan of), especially the Trial and the Castle; something like a strong feeling of identifying with the feeling of the writer – like he’s saying what I feel but could never come up with the words for.

By: ptolemyclark

ptolemyclark — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:23:05 +0000

I had an intensely physical reaction upon completing Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” back before anyone had really heard of it and before it started being read in high schools. I literally could not let go of the book, like it was my most prized possession in the entire world and felt like if someone pried it from my hands that I would just die.
And I’m not exactly the most over-dramatic person.

By: kinqaid

kinqaid — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:42:47 +0000

I wept uncontrollably after reading 26A by Diana Evans. Powerful stuff. It was the last book to do that to me. But Ian McEwan can also pack an emotional punch, and Jose Saramago always finds a breathtaking way to horrify our very best sensibilities.

By: audrey

audrey — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:53:55 +0000

The books that make me cry are always by Terry McMillan. I love how she writes about stuff I can relate to.

By: SaraDevil

SaraDevil — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:31:47 +0000

I went through three boxes of tissue reading the last Harry Potter book. I can admit things like that because I’m a girl.

I also find myself consistently moved to tears any time I re-read any of Frank Herbert’s classics, don’t ask me why I couldn’t really explain it.

Aside from the very modern and the quasi modern I tend to find that the authors who move me best are the classic writers. Hawthorne, Bronte, Williams, Shakespeare….There is a reason some writers are timeless.

I’ve been reading too much chiclit (I can’t believe I’m admitting that) lately to truly say I’ve been brought to tears in a bit.

By: maris

maris — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:57:42 +0000

Another instance of when I cried at my desk: reading about how Foster Wallace marked his students’ papers with smiley faces. That tiny detail. Sob.

By: blair

blair — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:56:05 +0000

Well, since I’m male and boys don’t cry, I guess I’ll just list some of the things that have stopped me in my tracks (emotionally):

Jim Harrison’s Letter’s to Yesenin (poems); Junot Diaz’s “Nilda” (when he gets to the line, “What’s the point of all this? He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone.”); Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son (“Work,” Car-Crash While Hitchhiking,” etc.); John Bricuth’s Just Let Me Say This About That.

I think the last time I teared up actually reading something was (and Randy mentions him) reading some of the tributes, etc. after David Foster Wallace died. Funny how that can happen with someone I’ve only read and never met.