Suzanne wrote:

I am just against those cheap tear jerkers where the author just throws around unnessary pain for the shock value. I use "The Kite Runner" as an example, the ending was over the top and unnessary, it made the characters seem fake in a way. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.

I understand what you say, but I do not remember "The kite Runner" primarily as a tear jerker. It was clear that the Afghan-born author was writing for a western audience (perhaps the film was a tear-jerker, I haven't seen it).
It had the immense merit of opening a window onto Afghan life through a novel, and then showing you about their life in the US in the end. Perhaps the end was a little over the top bu I liked the book and found it very moving.


Have you read" A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry?
I wonder if you would classify this as a tear-jerker; I've had difficulties finishing it because it's so sad at times.
It's about the lives of two Untouchables in India during the State of Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. I knew there had been a lot of forcible sterelizations at the time, but I am now in the last chapters and it's always worse seeing things happen in a novel. The amount of brutality and indifference they had to put up with is staggering.

Hello Ophelia:

Ophelia wrote:

Have you read" A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry?
I wonder if you would classify this as a tear-jerker; I've had difficulties finishing it because it's so sad at times.

I have read this, and I agree that the final chapters are difficult. This book differs from "The Kite Runner", in the respect that the author presented true pain and suffering occuring in India. I am familiar with the "Untouchables" and I feel Rohinton Mistry effectively portrayed the atrocities this caste is subjected to. Whereas, the sadness at the end of "The Kite Runner" in my opinion, was used by the author to evoke emotion for shock value. (I am referring to the passages pertaining to the little boy in the bath tub) It was unnecessary, and unbelivable. I don't require a happy ending, but if the author chooses to end a book with extreme sadness and emotion, it needs to be logical, it needs a base. The final chapters in "A Fine Balance" are painful to read, but Mistry created a foundation throughout the book to support it.


Shock value! has no value, I find it cheap, and manipulating.

I have read that Edith Wharton's "Age of Innocence" has been given the title of tear-jerker. It is on my personal list for my summer reading. I am interested to feel my reaction to it.

I think there is a differance between sad, and tear jerker.
Suzanne

Chris OConnor wrote:

It sucks when we buy books only to learn they're quite boring.

Exactly. There were some books that really disappointed me. I bought this book Night of the Moonbow. I thought it was nice but it depressed me a lot. A LOT!

Just like King of the Castle did. I get the message about children being not-so-innocent and that they are actually more perceptive that what grown-ups think, and that adults sometimes act like children can't think deeply, don't take things seriously, etc. An eye-opener for grown-ups perhaps, but very gloomy.

Suzanne wrote: I think this is why I am also not a fan of "The Kite Runner". I guess that's why they are called tear jerkers. Written by jerks who cry all the way to the bank.

Suzanne

I think you're right about White Oleander, I haven't read the book, but the movie was, although elegant, a heck of a downer. But I disagree with your assertion that the main character(s) of The Kite Runner end up not finding happiness. The whole book is a tale of redemption, and, though it may be rather skimpy, I do think that by becoming responsible for Sohrab, Amir finds some sort of inner peace.

I'm not a fan of self-help, and I find them to be quite boring. Love in the Time of Cholera was awful. Usually you are supposed to like one of the main characters, but I hated them all. I couldn't stand to think about the greasy-haired protagonist who was supposed to be a major playboy. Fall on Your Knees, from Oprah's bookclub, was also hard to finish, so I stopped reading it midway through. There was another book called I Read Good or I Write Good..can't remember...but I couldn't wait to give it away. Life is too short to read stories that aren't satisfying in some way.

shakesbeare

war and peace

I recently read "The Road to Oz" and it was horrible.

For me, the absolute worst was Flannery O'Connor's book, A Good Man is Hard to Find--one story had a man dump his bride because all he was really after was the car, in another a child drowns, and then one where an entire family is murdered. That was a throw across the room book!

Also disappointing to me were Love in the Time of Cholera (perverse!) and Cruising Paradise (depressing!).

Penelope...I'm one of the 'others' also.

Chariots of the Gods- Erik Von Daniken. I simply could not force myself to read more than three pages. The absolute worst thing I've ever read.