Kevin's Watch

Inspired in part by peter's thread about books that disturb your sleep, here's another question: What's the last book that made you cry?

I'm going to name two things, actually. And both of them are comics.

First of all, Daytripper, a short series by brothers Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, is all about death and life (each chapter is a pivotal day in the protagonist's life, and the conceit is they all end with him dying on that day), and although the whole thing can be pretty bittersweet and sad, there was just one small moment near the end that set me off.

Secondly, we have Y: The Last Man, written by Brian K Vaughan. This was a long series (10 volumes or 5 big hardbacks in full), and right at the end there is a certain... event that I really, really do not want to spoil at all, but when I got to it I totally lost my shit. I mean serious, loud, ugly sobbing for five minutes or something. That has never happened to me before, and I have no idea why it hit me so hard. I'm still kinda angry about that book.

It was actually one of Aliantha's series of books about Naomi and Joseph, but I can't remember which one and which bit!

Sense and Sensibility always makes me cry, the bit where Elinor realises that Edward isn't married after all.

It's been a while... I seem to sob more at movies then at books. With books, I'm most likely to hurl them across the room in frustration (damn you, Kallor!).

The one I can remember is Little, Big by John Crowley. There are quite a few sad scenes in that one, but the one that got me the most involved a mouse trying to get the attention of one of the characters as he was leaving for the City. *sob* Turn around! He knew your grandfather!

To be honest, I was just finishing off White Gold Wielder a couple nights ago and I got a little choked up when Linden healed Pitchwife's deformity. That whole scene when she is healing the Land is pretty emotional to me, but that part is especially so. No actual tears, but close

For me, the scene where he arrives at Revelstone with the Search and recites Foamfollowers verse, and the first names him Earthfriend does that.

--A

this poem...


Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy
Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy
By Thomas Lux b. 1946 Thomas Lux

For some semitropical reason
when the rains fall
relentlessly they fall


into swimming pools, these otherwise
bright and scary
arachnids. They can swim
a little, but not for long


and they can’t climb the ladder out.
They usually drown—but
if you want their favor,
if you believe there is justice,
a reward for not loving


the death of ugly
and even dangerous (the eel, hog snake,
rats) creatures, if


you believe these things, then
you would leave a lifebuoy
or two in your swimming pool at night.


And in the morning
you would haul ashore
the huddled, hairy survivors


and escort them
back to the bush, and know,
be assured that at least these saved,
as individuals, would not turn up


again someday
in your hat, drawer,
or the tangled underworld


of your socks, and that even—
when your belief in justice
merges with your belief in dreams—
they may tell the others


in a sign language
four times as subtle
and complicated as man’s


that you are good,
that you love them,
that you would save them again.

I cried after Lord Mhoram's victory in TPTP. I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've cried reading a book. I'm such a sucka.

Wow, great poem Sarge.

--A

It seems a trite answer but SRD is one of the few authors who can do this for me on a predictable basis. Re-reads of the Ist and 2nd Chrons will have me 'filling up' at the same points every time [Prothall jesting with Foamfollower about the diamondraught, the meeting with 'the Search' in the Sarangrave being two cases in point]. I'm not a fiction reader as a rule, prefering popular history, science and philosophy where there is not much scope for high emotion. Poetry however is a different matter. A few times I have tried to read "Horatius at the Bridge" by Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay to friends aloud - and each time I have had to dash away the tears and give up the atempt. Even a silent reading makes me choke. give it a try:-

www.bartleby.com/360/7/158.html

Avatar wrote:Wow, great poem Sarge.

--A

all these years later and I can't read it without tearing up. I limit myself to reading it only once or so a year to keep in affect. it sums up my love for the unloved.

Dear little Bog-Face,
Why are you so cold?
And why do you lie with your eyes shut?--
You are not very old.

I am a child of this world
And a child of grace,
And Mother, I shall be glad when it is over,
I am Bog-Face.

[Stevie Smith.]

Iolanthe wrote:It was actually one of Aliantha's series of books about Naomi and Joseph, but I can't remember which one and which bit!

Really? I'm sorry. (Kind of. )

I totally teared up at one certain part in TLD....

I haven't cried from a book in a very long time. Last time I recall I was 12 and had just finished A Dog of Flanders...

I may have teared up over Flowers for Algernon. It is still my favorite short story ever.

{Not quite in keeping with the thread but I hope Murrin will forgive me a small diversion - I was reminded of Groucho Marx's famous comment on an aquaintances recently published book; "I was convulsed with laughter from the moment I picked it up until the moment I put it down - some day I intend reading it."}

I'd say that two books made me cry in High School: A Separate Peace and Johnny Got His Gun.

Xanth series.. Ogre, Ogre.. I laughed till I cried.

TLD - and not for the right reasons! I'm going off to get a copy of Dan Brown's 'Inferno' and if I enjoy it more than that last offering of Chrons I swear I'll never speak to SRD again - and you lot will never hear the end of it!

the Road.

There are a few that have me in tears when I read them.

Not sure what the last one was, but I would think it was either the end of Tale of Two Cities or towards the end of The Snow Goose.