"Therapeutic"/comforting literature

[Zukunftsmusik]

Recommend me books, preferably fiction (at least definitely not "self-help books" and the like), that either

a) circle around themes such as sorrow/loss/depression and the coping with/overcoming of this, or

b) helped you through a period of sorrow/loss/depression for whatever reason.

Thanks in advance.

[Art Vandelay]

I don't know why but I remember notes from the underground helping a bit. Alot of stuff by Camus did as well, paritcularily the myth of sisyphus.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I was going to suggest Camus as well. I also found The Elementary Particles to be very cathartic to read during a period when I was dealing with unrequited love, though the book itself is not exactly uplifting. I'm having trouble thinking of examples right now for some reason, I will post some more suggestions once I think of some.

[Zukunftsmusik]

I don't know why but I remember notes from the underground helping a bit.

I know I said for whatever reason, but I honestly find that a bit weird. But if it helped you then that's good. I don't feel like re-reading this though.


Alot of stuff by Camus did as well, paritcularily the myth of sisyphus.

For some reason I have a problem with Camus. I quite liked The Fall and The Stranger (though I read the latter in French so I might have missed bits and pieces), but I couldn't get through The Plague, for example. I can see how The Myth of Sisyphus might be relevant, though, so I might check that out.

[motion denied]

Hardly comforting but Sorrows of Young Werther helped me for some reason...

Also, The Little Town by Heinrich Mann or his brother's Death in Venice.

[Zukunftsmusik]

Nevermind the comforting part. It can be bleak and cold for all I care, really.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I thought of a couple more

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
Pleasant Hell - John Dolan
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

These are all books I remember appreciating during a down time of my life. The reality is that those times probably account for the majority of my reading, I just am running out of space in my head apparently. This makes me want to start keeping a journal of which books I read and the mood I was in while reading them.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Recommend me books, preferably fiction (at least definitely not "self-help books" and the like), that either

a) circle around themes such as sorrow/loss/depression and the coping with/overcoming of this, or

b) helped you through a period of sorrow/loss/depression for whatever reason.

Thanks in advance.

a) Martin, "The Dying of the Light" (I've started to re-read this recently in fact).

b) Turgenev, "Fathers and Children", Heller, "Catch-22", the first few books of Proust's "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu", Huysmans, "A Rebours", Stapledon, "First and Last Men".

[bcbm]

'fierce invalids home from hot climates' by tom robbins was a book i discovered at a time i was quite low in life that helped me turn it around, at least for awhile. re-reading it in recent years some parts now strike me as corny or creepy, but there is still some good bits in it too. the grandmother especially has a good outlook on life i think more people would do well to adopt. i might re-read it again soon now that i'm thinking of it.

[Zukunftsmusik]

Thanks for all the recommendations. I'm going to the library today to see if I can find some of these. I've started re-reading In The Wake by Per Petterson, about the loss of his parents in a ferry disaster and the time afterwards, but really any book by this guy is a good place to go for this kind of reading as all of his books are about sentimental and melancholic men or boys drifting through life (except for one about his mother). And where can you go wrong with titles such as the above or I Curse the River of Time (incidentally stolen from Mao)?

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Also, since I seem to be on some sort of SF and fantasy binge, Vance's "Dying Earth" can be oddly therapeutic. Mankind is dying, civilisation breaks down and strange monsters are encroaching on where it once stood... and the characters still manage to have fun while everything is collapsing around them.

Or maybe it's just that my brain works weird.

[The Intransigent Faction]

I don't know why but I remember notes from the underground helping a bit. Alot of stuff by Camus did as well, paritcularily the myth of sisyphus.

I just started reading The Myth of Sisyphus today. It's not bad so far (and I am getting a feeling that it will be therapeutic)!