My tutor at university once recommended that I read _The Good Soldier_,
by Ford Madox Ford. It's about as sad as you can get while still
remaining in the register of "wealthy white people and their marital
tribulations". Great story anyhow. Donleavy's "The Saddest Summer of
Samuel S" is also gloriously mournful.
I would want to distinguish "sad" from "devastating", "traumatic", etc.
- it isn't merely an understatement, but a kind of category error to
describe the enormities of warfare, natural disaster etc. as "sad",
although sadness can arise alongside trauma and devastation. But sadness
inheres in the normal, or in the effort to uphold normality.
Dominic
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