Depressing Reads
Yet again, the latest instalment of our recommended reading list. As always, if you'd like us to include your review amongst ours on these pages, please get in touch!
Weather News: Large Depression Forecast over West End Lane
It struck us recently just how many of our recent staff recommendations could be described as either dark or depressing. So, Prozac at the ready, here are a few more suggestions to get you in the mood.
And bring Churchill's black dog with you by all means, just as long as it's well-behaved.
Hunger / Knut Hamsun / £7.99 / Canongate / 9781841958194
Do you ever suffer from feelings of elation? Experience long periods of happiness? Well, I've got the perfect prescription to cure you of that...
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
To be taken three times a day (preferably with alcohol)
...and you'll soon be immersed in the all-pervasive Nordic gloom of Nobel Prize Winner Hamsun's first novel.
It's (anti-)hero narrator seems to be engaged in a daily Catch-22 struggle against hunger: he can't eat until he's made some money from his writing, but he can't write on an empty stomach.
Trapped in an endless cycle of poverty and hunger on the streets of Christiania (present-day Oslo), his every effort to escape appears to be thwarted by circumstance. Despair and disillusionment rapidly replace any optimism he may muster.
While he starves, we lucky readers can devour every word of this short novel (hardly more than a novella) and gorge on his depression and bleak outlook.
But if all this sounds too negative, let me just add that Hunger still ranks in my top 20 favourite novels of all time.
Steppenwolf / Herman Hesse / £8.99 / 9780141182896
Frequently described as a savage critique of bourgeouis society, Nobel-prize winner Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf has repeatedly been misunderstood by the literary community. The novel follows the inner pyschological journey of a depressive and highly
disillusioned intellectual (it is often unclear whether the events have happened in reality
or are simply a series of metaphors depicting his state of mind), whose quest for
enlightenment, and release from his physical and mental ailments lead him into a dark,
surreal world of debauchery and moral abandon.
In contrast to his more uplifting, yet equally engrossing novel, Siddartha, it is at the
moment of imminent catharsis that the protaganist, Harry Haller (or wolf of the steps, as
he refers to himself) is plunged into an abyss of ultra-confusion. Faced with the complete
mingling of good and evil, the intellectually pure and the morally corrupt, Haller, and
more importantly the reader, is left feeling utterly detached from the very notion of hope versus hopelessness.
'What's the point, then?' you may ask, perhaps justifiably: Steppenwolf is the ultimate
journey into the tortured spirit of a man who has tried desperately to find peace and
understanding in the arts, music and literature, moral behaviour and honesty. Yet he is
fully aware all the while that a ferocious, cynical beast lurks deep within him, snarling at
any who look upon him. Such a beast dwells inside a great many of us; it howls at night in
a voice that only the individual can hear, and yearns for utter seclusion, darkness,
continuous melancholy, and last but not least, revelry in bitter pain.
(Or something like that... It could also be my stomach groaning, yearning for some relief from this horrific hangover...)
Things Fall Apart / Chinua Achebe / £8.99 / 9780141186887
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a book depicting the desruction of one culture in order for another to take its place. The idea of the usurpation of African culture by white Christian values is the focal point of the book which is shown form the narrative point of view of Okonkwo, who many believe is a characterisation of Achebe himself. The book is hailed a mile stone for African literature due to its portrayal of a realistic, functioning society slowly taken over by a dominant society. The novel shows the clashes of generations, the opposing ideas of masculinity and femininity and how these clashes within a society can lead it to its downfall. The book has a cyclicar quality to it, the clashes between Okonkwo and his father are repeated once again when Okonkwo's son goes against his wishes. The feelings of self deprecation and guilt within Okonkwo mirror the While outwardly book is about race and the plight of African people the themes of family and betrayal make the book more than a historical piece of writing. The frank, provocative and poignant descriptions make Things Fall Apart a deeply moving novel.
Revolutionary Road / Richard Yates / £7.99 / 9780099518624
There are two main types of depressing reads, this book fits into the 1st; plumbing the depths of human existential angst. In a bid to reach the unreachable, the dream, there is always a fall. Here it is described in all it's glory.
What really hits me is the fact that if you've ever been in a relationship that slowly unravelled, deteriorating in front of your very eyes but without a thing you can do to stop it, then you may be able to relate to the dialogue used by Mr.Yates. You enter the realm of shattered hope and i could feel the shards that were left deeply embedded in my skin. The arguments are put across in a manner that as far as I know had never been done before, it comes across full force with familiarity. The words spat with venom, even if the couple want to save each other as the escalating drama gets beyond them.They go into the relationship wanting to take on the world together, on their own terms, but somewhere along the way the limbs lose grip and it all becomes sand through fingers.
It's as if you thought you were alone in this, then you hoover up the sentences with an odd enthusiasm, disbelieving the author had put this on paper before you were even born. Yes, it's tragic, but also vindicates you and connects you to this bizarre collective named the human race.
Or is it just me?
Story of the Eye / Georges Bataille / £7.99 / 9780141185385
In the second type is the kind of book which sends you spiralling into the abyss without a rope to pull yourself back with. I would pick a book that most people would describe more as filth than 'downer'. Bataille delved further into an exploration of sexual deviancy than most, but by reading the coincidences' section of the afterword a whole new world of understanding opens up beyond the religious agitation and intellectual stirrings. The reasons for entering into the extremes of erotic interplay are heartbreaking, if taken away from the central captivation of how far the mind and body can be fused in their battle
against one another.
To feel proud to read pornography, stimulation of the mind over the body. Written in 1928, yet still examines taboos that today some may not be ready to face. Sex mixes in provocation, confused identities, family politics, domesticity, religious perplexion, power play, mental anguish, frustration, mysticism, anxiety and the role of the pariah in society.
Mind provoking melancholy. There is an argument for this above all things to be the eye in the storm of depressing subjects. This could include devastating upheavals such as; loss, war, poverty, degeneration, human conflict, and death. The way a person attempts to fill the void can be the best possible stage for crushing distress and ruin.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly / Jean-Dominique Bauby / £6.99 / 9780007139842
Finally, a different angle, a book that is depressing as hell but makes you feel like life is truly worth living. Being based on actual events, it is unbelievable to think that a man in the situation he finds himself can make you laugh, think out of the box and be left in a divisive void. It takes true horror to put to you the bigger questions such as; have we evolved beyond our means in terms of medical advancement, should we keep the body alive after it would have died in normal circumstances, when it should have stopped due to all the basic functions being gone forever. The human spirit is the only thing remaining when chances of repair are all but dried up and frustration is all that remains ahead. The power of communication has to be re-evaluated, and the facets of endurance are examined.
Humour is found in the deepest of dark crevices,and an unconventional hero is carved out of what is essentially a not very nice man who pulls you into his world when it has been destroyed beyond on all recognition.
Honestly, this book will raise your spirits, after you arrive at the other side.
