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<\/p>\nI\u2019ve always read my way through depressions. When my world sucks, I shut the drapes, hide under the cover, and read. And I will read everything: novels, classics, epic fantasy, romance, spy novels, you name it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These last couple of years have been especially sucky, though. Watching a genocide being live streamed is something no sane person could abide. Seeing masked gestapo agents disappearing people in broad daylight is devastating. And what can I say about people who I thought were moderately intelligent acquiescing to the demands of a narcissistic sociopath?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re not depressed, you\u2019re not paying attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other day, however, when I finished a wonderful novel, I realized I was feeling better. The world might suck, but I can still be inspired. I\u2019m assuming here that everyone reading this knows the James Baldwin quote:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, in this maelstrom of shittiness, I offer you a list of depressing novels that can lift you out of depression\u2014a list that will not include my new novel, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), because it would be too cringe to promote my novel on my list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Gerbrand Bakker, David Colmer (Trans.), The Hairdresser\u2019s Son<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n Why it\u2019s depressing: Why it will lift you out of your depression: Bohumil Hrabal, Michael Henry Heim (Trans.), Too Loud a Solitude<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Why it\u2019s depressing: Why it will lift you out of your depression: J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Why it\u2019s depressing: Why it will lift you out of your depression: Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Why it\u2019s depressing: Why it will lift you out of your depression: Svetlana Alexievich, Keith Gessen (Trans.), Voices from Chernobyl<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Why it\u2019s depressing: Why it will lift you out of your depression:
I have little in common with the main protagonist of this novel, Simon, other than being gay, lonely, middle-aged, grumpy, single, slightly misanthropic with mother issues. Simon is a hairdresser, just like his father who died before he was born, and his grandfather before him. Simon researches his father\u2019s life and finds nothing, tries a relationship with an emotionally withdrawn writer that fails, and tries to get through to his mother and fails miserably. That\u2019s depressing.<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s fucking brilliant, of course. The novel shows us Simon living his life\u2014honing razors, polishing mirrors, sweeping discarded hair\u2014an ordinary life filled with wonder. The subtlety with which the reader comes to see Simon\u2019s loneliness and desperation is magical (and depressing!) His condition is mine. It\u2019s yours. It\u2019s human.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/too-loud-a-solitude-197x300.jpg\")
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Let\u2019s start with the fact that the book is about a man, Ha\u0148\u0165a, who has spent his life compacting wastepaper for recycling in a cellar. Is that not enough? He attempts to rescue banned books that are about to be destroyed.\u00a0 His life\u2019s ambition is to buy the hydraulic press he uses to crush the paper, which he never achieves, of course. And when The Brigade of Socialist Workers replace him with apathetic paper crushers, he lies down in his press, holding a book by Novalis of all people, and crushes himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s fucking brilliant, of course. Ha\u0148\u0165a is trying to survive a totalitarian dictatorship that disdains and prosecutes the arts (sound familiar?), yet he doesn\u2019t merely survive, he transcends. The world might see him as a peon, but he sees himself as an artist. He considers every bundle of papers he creates a work of art. He wraps each bale with reproductions of paintings and places a rare book at the center of it. He dreams of the world seeing his bales the way he does. Dreams are an act of resistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/waiting-for-the-barbarians-197x300.jpg\")
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No one escapes the savagery of colonialism in this novel (think Gaza). It shows us how we destroy our souls. The collapse of the magistrate echoes that of empire. The violence, the torture, the killings. It\u2019s so depressing, it makes Disgrace read like a walk in the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s fucking brilliant, one of the great novels of the twentieth century\u2014hell, one of the greatest novels ever. I\u2019m not sure how well I can write about it because I\u2019ve read it so many times, and each reading impacts me in a discrete way. Reading and rereading it makes me feel better because it helps me understand that we all are both the empire and its barbarians.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/anna-karenina-197x300.jpg\")
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Unhappily married Anna decides to have an affair, fucks everything up, causes much pain to many, and finally commits suicide by train decapitation. Ouch!<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s fucking brilliant, arguably the best novel ever written. If asked to define the word ravishing, I\u2019d reply Anna Karenina. However, that isn\u2019t the only reason why the novel is uplifting. As with The Hairdresser\u2019s Son, reading about Anna\u2019s loneliness helps us see our own. It shows us our wound, and hopefully, once we see it, we might be able to apply antibiotics and maybe some gauze.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/voices-from-chernobyl-209x300.jpg\")
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Let\u2019s see. The collective nightmare of a nuclear meltdown with all its accompanying horrors: leukemia and a hodgepodge of other cancers, disfigurement, mutation, displacement, forced evacuation, death of people and animals and land and hope. It\u2019s a horrific situation that is exhaustively documented.<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s fucking brilliant, of course. I don\u2019t remember any book ever affecting me as much as this one. It\u2019s supposed to be an oral history, but Alexievich calls it a novel in voices. No matter how sad their stories are, how awful, hearing from people whose voices are rarely listened to is exquisitely cathartic. Alexievich does something mindboggling. The reader not only gets to hear these singular people speak but also begins to see a people do so. No matter how many times you have read this book, I suggest a reread. It is Kafka\u2019s axe for the frozen sea within us.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/every-man-dies-alone-200x300.jpeg\")
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