Name: The Crying Book
ISBN: 9781472154712

HEATHER. CHRISTLE

The Crying Book

Heather Christle

"This is a wonderful and profound look at the act of crying--something human and yet hidden, common and yet mysterious. I found myself reading with a thirst for the tears Heather Christle collects here--instances within literature, film, history, and the author's own life all add up to a greater understanding of what makes us human." --Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else Why do we cry? How do we cry? And what does it mean? A scientific, cultural, artistic examination by a young poet on the cusp of motherhood. Heather Christle has just lost a dear friend to suicide and now must reckon with her own depression and the birth of her first child. As she faces her grief and impending parenthood, she decides to research the act of crying: what it is and why people do it, even if they rarely talk about it. Along the way, she discovers an artist who designed a frozen-tear-shooting gun and a moth that feeds on the tears of other animals. She researches tear-collecting devices (lachrymatories) and explores the role white women's tears play in racist violence. Honest, intelligent, rapturous, and surprising, Christle's investigations look through a mosaic of science, history, and her own lived experience to find new ways of understanding life, loss, and mental illness. The Crying Book is a deeply personal tribute to the fascinating strangeness of tears and the unexpected resilience of joy.

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld

This book is an examination of crying. It is Christle reckoning with the loss of a friend to suicide, the birth of her first child and a somewhat crippling depression. It is filled with small pieces of poetry, stories, research, experiences and more. It is the history of crying and thus also the history of humanity. The gendering of crying, the weaponizing of tears by racists, the different versions of tears.

As a person who is much to easily moved to tears I was immediately intrigued. I can’t go a a day without crying. Almost anything can get me going. Kindness, literature, poetry, films, and music. Music is probably my main trigger and opera is something I must be quite careful about listening to in public. 

Christle has created a poetic, beautiful, enlightening, maddening, and important work of art. My lists have filled up with books to read, stuff to research, and stories to tell the people in my life. 

And to answer your question: yes. It made me cry. More than once.

Kelci

I was not sure what to expect when I got this book in the mail, but all I can say is wow! I am someone who apologizes every single time I cry (even when my dad passed away) and this beautiful text validated all of the tears I cry, whether they’re from grief, happiness (some books are just too pure), frustration or anger. Thank you, Heather! You have written a winner. 

I won this book through a goodreads giveaway. Thank you to catapult (Elizabeth Ireland) and Heather Christle.

Anabel

Nadia

Actually disappointed it finished so soon. I was reading, saw the end and thought, there must be another little section? But no there wasn’t. 

This was really good, read almost like a diary! Definitely want to read this one again.

'A deeply felt, and genuinely touching, book' Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias 'Spellbinding and propulsive' Leni Zeumas, author of Red Clocks 'The Crying Book is a rigorous and urgent work but it reads like an intimate gift' Kaveh Akbar, author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf A DAZZLING MEDITATION ON TEARS In this symphonic work of non-fiction, Heather Christle explores the most human of behaviours: crying. What are tears made of? Why do people cry? And why is this common, crucial act so rarely discussed? Christle unpacks the biological reasons for tears and investigates the influence of crying on art, politics, feminism, race and culture, all while opening up the intimate story of her own tears - from the suicide of her close friend to her family's history of depression, to her pregnancies, both planned and unplanned. In these pages, we meet a feminist artist who designs a gun that shoots frozen tears. A moth that takes sustenance from feeding on the tears shed by other animals. And beautifully impractical devices for dealing with grief such as the 'lachrymatory', an ancient receptacle into which it was hoped 'a mourner could let fall her hot tears'. While Christle enchants us with poetic snippets on these subjects, a powerful investigation begins to accrue, examining how the history of tears is tied up with racist violence, with the stigma of mental illness, and with the ways in which glib contemporary images of motherhood fail to reckon with how rich and complicated is actually is. Brilliant, witty and achingly honest, Christle's book creates a mosaic of science, history, culture and personal experience to find new ways of understanding life and loss. The Crying Book is a deeply intimate tribute to the fascinating strangeness of tears - and the unexpected resilience of joy. Honest, intelligent, rapturous and surprising, The Crying Book is a poignant, personal tribute to the astonishing strangeness of tears and the startling resilience of joy.

The Crying Book

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