In the past few months I've managed to read ALL of Kaye Gibbons books. This includes the following: Ellen Foster, Charms for the Easy Life, On the Occassion of My Last Afternoon, A Cure For Dreams, A Virtuous Woman and Divining Women. I love this author. Her work drew me in. At the end of each book, I sighed with satisfaction. I liked her work because despite it's difficult themes, it did not make me depressed. Often, books I love end of making me sad. This has been true of authors Ann Lamott and John Steinbeck. Also titles: Snowflower and the Secret Fan, The Kite Runner, and A Thousand Splendid Suns have left me feeling down. Chad will notice me moping around the house and say, "Are you reading a sad book again?"
The thing is, I like sad stories. My favorite thing about Kaye Gibbons is her ability to weave goodness and triumph into a sad story. There is something about sad stories (and sad music) that I enjoy. Chad thinks I'm crazy. He watches movies to escape and he dislikes unhappy endings. We watched Cold Mountain last night and he was not a happy camper when the credits were rolling at the end of that story.
My Kaye Gibbons roll is over. If anyone knows of similar authors, please let me know.
4 comments:
great to have you bloggin again my friend.
Sorry, but I have no advice for you on sad authors... I think I am bent more like Chadly. I love the "happily ever afters"
love ya
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a great author and she definitely has some sad themes but there is hope in the midst. I would say "Arranged marriage" (collection of short stories) is the most sad, but my favorite so far is "the unknown errors of our lives." Both are available at the fayetteville library.
I read the Kite Runner but did not have it in me to read A Thousand Splendid Suns. I'm glad you are back on the blog:)
I'm too like Chad. Couldn't even sit through Cold Moutain...I pretty much hated it and still see those "ugly" scenes in my brain years later. Does Chad like chick-flicks? Those always end happy! ;)
BUT, I do LOVE the movie The Notebook. Cried like a baby both times I watched it. I read the book after seeing the movie and didn't like the way the book ended. I haven't read anything else by the same author (Nichols Sparks?).
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