Three Steps Off the Beaten Path: November
Author: Asandra al'Terra
Dear Tar Valon,
The year is, distressingly, winding to an end. The first of November will see me running my first marathon – the end of an effort that began midway through 2014, when I started the qualification process to enter, followed by months of training (and fear of injury). It’s hard to believe that November 1 will also herald the penultimate month of the year – it feels like 2015 has barely begun!
October has been unusually stressful and tiring for me, and when that happens, I’ve found that books that break my heart into a thousand pieces tend to make me feel better. Crying is cathartic, after all, and anguishing over a character’s fate is a good way to release emotions without anything bad actually happening.
With that in mind, I’ve decided that November will be the month that I present three sad books to you. Maybe now’s not the time – maybe you’ll come back to them in a few months, when you need to let loose. Either way, I hope you enjoy.
Contents
Three Steps off the Beaten Path: November 2015
“Take a Sad Song and Make It Better” Edition
And the Birds Rained Down – Jocelyne Saucier
(Female | White | Canada | ? | 5*)
Originally written in French (well, Quebecois), And the Birds Rained Down follows a photographer creating a project about survivors of the great fires of Ontario in the early 20th century. This book was beautifully written, and it made me nostalgic for something I couldn’t recognize. It’s a short book, clocking in at around 120 pages, but each page is heartwrenching, and I often had to stop to breathe in the beauty of what I’d just read. It’s heartbreaking, but in a strangely uplifting way. I highly recommend it – it is, arguably, my favourite book that I’ve read this year.
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
(Female | POC | USA | ? | 5*)
The reason that And the Birds is arguably my favourite book of the year (so far) is because of A Little Life, which also took my breath away. It was nominated for numerous awards this year, and for good reason. It’s a gigantic book, reaching over 700 pages, and it’s not an easy one to get through. It tells the story of four young friends from college – Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcom – as they move to NYC and grow old together. The descriptions of life, love, friendship, success, failure, happiness, and tragedy are wonderful and inspired.
The dust jacket describes how it’s a book constantly moving towards sadness, and it’s true – there is no happy moment for which there isn’t an excruciatingly sad one in turn. The last 200 pages, which I read in one sitting on Saturday, had me crying so hard I was dehydrated by the end of the day.
Even though the book is beautiful, though, and even though it’s about life (nothing more, nothing less), it’s not an easy book to read. I have to put trigger warnings on it, because there are graphic descriptions of sexual assault, domestic abuse, self-harm, suicide attempts, drug overdoses, and child abuse – among many others. I recommended it to a friend, and – while the first quarter of it was among the best of what he’s read this year – he put it down at the halfway point.
Lucky Us – Amy Bloom
(Female | White | USA | ? | 5*)
To finish on a softer note: Lucky Us, the story of two sisters and how they grow up together. It’s a sweet story: sad and uplifting, it’s the portrait of life with all of its pitfalls, without the brutality shown in A Little Life.
When I first began the book, I was scared everything would end happily ever after – and it does, but nobody gets the ending they expected.
It’s a divisive book, as far as the ratings I’ve looked at have shown; people tend to love it or hated. I adored it, and I hope you will too.
What books would you include in this list? What books or themes would you like to see featured? Post in the comments, or send an email to 3.steps.each@gmail.com!
As always, the criteria for this column involve books that meet at least one of the following: the author is not male, not white, not American, or not straight.
Key: (Sex [M/F/GQ/…] | Race [White/POC] | Country of Origin | Sexual orientation [L/G/B/Q/…] | Rating [X stars / TBR] )
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