TOP TEN WEEPIES

[lexlingua]

One of my seniors at school only ever read tragedies, and I couldn't imagine why— I thought her quite weird actually. Then I found out that crying can have an emotionally cathartic effect— so, here’s a list of my ‘favourite’ tearjerkers:

1. LES MISERABLES by Victor Hugo

My schoolbook had a story called ‘The Bishop’s Candlesticks’ and I so loved the Bishop’s kindness and reformatory tactics that I bought the translated version of Les Miserables. I thought it would have a happy ending— I lived in the disillusion that good men always ended up with good lives. What a sapskull I was! I cried throughout, and hated Cozette and her husband quite madly. Jean Valjean (to be pronounced as John Valjohn, naturally) of course is the most completely retarded doormat-ish goody-two-shoes ever created (not!), and of course, I love him. Sniff! [Read it here.]

2. THE FAULT IN OUR STARS BY John Green

When you have a heroine and a hero who are witty teenagers and who have terminal cancer and who fall in ‘first love’ with each other—of course, it’s bound to end up in a bucketload of tears. There are people who call such books emotionally manipulative, because diseases, deaths, star-crossed love and cancer will inevitable make someone cry at the loss of life and love. But there are some great ‘aha’ moments, and some great ‘feel-good’ moments. And then there are the tears, which may alarm your family, but will make you rethink your priorities.

3. BRAVEHEART

Right, so it is a movie, and not a book, and I am cheating— but what else is new? If you don’t cry while William Wallace (Mel Gibson) cries out for ‘Freedom!’ at the top of his lungs, you have a heart made of stone.

4. HELEN KELLER'S TEACHER by Margaret Davidson

Some of you may have seen the movies ‘Black’ or a ‘Patch of Blue’… about a dually disabled girl and her teacher. Well, Helen Keller was real, and had it not been for her determined teacher, she would never have gotten a degree from Radcliffe College, despite the misfortune of being both deaf and blind. Watch out for the scene where Helen first learns to say ‘water’ and see if it doesn’t make your eyes water.

5. HACHIKO

And here is a movie again! Ah, you may roll your eyes all you like, but this dog is an adoration. He is an Akita breed, and if I may so, he is good-looking both as a pup and as a grown-up, a very masterful feat to achieve, as far as I am concerned. Gah, even as I am writing about this movie directed by Richard Gere, I am drooling because I too want a pet like Hachiko. Here’s a dog who waited for his master for nine years at the railway platform, when even the rest of his human family had forgotten the dead guy.

6. RAS KI BOOND (A Drop of Honey) by Mahadevi Verma

This is a Hindi short story, and is a scathing reminder of the insurmountable gulf between the rich and the poor. The rich kids bully their poor cousin even as they let him play with them, like a cat playing with a stringed mouse. The poor cousin doesn’t ask for much, and they taunt him with sweetmeats and toys that they won’t share with him. And then, the poor fellow makes the mistake of eating a sweet thrown away carelessly to the ground. The story is unrelentingly sad. 

[The picture to the left was what things should have been like for the poorer cousin, not how they really turn out. A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gal, after all.]

7. A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens

Every girl cries on reading the ending of this book— even J.K. Rowling did! Sydney Carter considers his wasted life well-spent when he sacrifices himself to save the fiancé of the girl he loves. The undeserving fiance, of course, is Sydney's look-alike, and the tale unfolds like a ball of yarn (pun intended) during the French Revolution.
Argh, Lucy, you are an abominable idiot; and I would really like to bang your head against the wall a few times!

8. THE TIME IS NOON by Pearl S. Buck

Watch out for Pearl S. Buck, the queen of weepies. No, that would be unjust epithet. She writes very realistic stories, full of ordinary people who lead desperate and lonely ordinary lives. Her books are unremittingly honest, and you will feel she has laid bare the soul of her lead character, and yours too in the process. The Time is Noon is one of my favourite books, because it speaks of that painful place when one is left without a good choice. Between the devil and the deep blue sea is our heroine when her father dies. She is really put through the wringer, but it is her optimism throughout which made me cry. There is one place where she asks her friend, “Should the lion suffer because it is strong (and is able to bear it)?” and I wept.

9. TESS OF THE d’URBERVILLES by Thomas Hardy

I read recently that Thomas Hardy stopped writing because he was so hurt about the criticism his books received. I’m not surprised his books got so much flack, he is an inordinately pessimistic writer. He throws his characters continuously in very unfortunate circumstances, makes them take very wrong decisions, and leaves them to repent these decisions evermore. Hello, cruel, cruel man, why don’t you ever give the heroine a second chance at happiness or forgiveness, until it is far too late. Hardy especially likes to paint his women in a fickle and unforgiving light. Tess is raped and suffers a miscarriage; she goes into hiding where her protests to marriage are all but ignored by her lover; her husband abandons her on learning her secret; her rapist seduces her again into adultery; and then she is stoned to death—right before her husband decides to take her back! {%#?!@%??!!# and all other angry interjections inserted here} I wept not only with sadness, but also with anger. If not for Hardy’s beautiful writing, I would have burnt the book.

10. CRIME & PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky is probably my favourite author, though I have only ever read this book of his. What is it about repenting for one’s sins and reforming that makes for such a truly weepy read? Is it the possibility of seeing one’s innate goodness finally prevail? Well, Raskolnikov is a poor but brilliant student in Russia, and he in a fir of ideological frenzy decides to kill his pawnbroker. His friendship with Sonia, a prostitute, is jittery and the awakening of his conscience. Dostoevsky highlights that it is not enough to confess to a crime; one must also feel remorse. When Raskolnikov finally wept with repentance, I was weepy too.





So, what are your favourite weepies?