For those among us who groan every time a new saccharine sweet romantic comedy comes out, Valentine’s Day is sort of the worst. Suddenly every television channel is playing Bridget Jones’s Diary, and even worse, the people who love that garbage come crawling out of whatever heart-shaped rock they normally live under to sing the gospel of love. Ugh, yeah, we get it.
But the thing is even cynics need love — just not bullshit, set-to-a-montage, John-Cusack-holding-a-stereo “love.” The 50 books below are filled with love, but a kind far more legitimate than what’s in your typical rom-com. They might not always be fun, and they might not always be sweet — in fact, the realistic depictions of romantic relationships in these 50 books will probably break your icy heart. So happy Valentine’s Day, and happy reading.
Oh, and don’t forget to get your candy on sale on February 15.
1. Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson
Carson’s exploration of love starts with the sentence, “It was Sappho who first called eros ‘bittersweet.’ No one who has been in love disputes her. What does the word mean?” From there unfurls a book of lyric poetry so stunning that it will pry open the hearts of even the most ardent haters of Runaway Bride.
2. The End of the Story by Lydia Davis
What are you left with when a relationship ends? Well, ticket stubs and receipts, old T-shirts and photographs, but those aren’t the things that wake you up in the middle of the night. Those tangible items don’t haunt you post breakup — memories do. Davis’s The End of the Story is a metaphysical novel about an unnamed narrator’s attempt to organize her memories of a relationship into a book. It’s a nearly flawless account of our pathological inability to let go of the past, even when the story has so clearly ended.
3. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Smith’s third novel follows the story of the Belsey family: Howard, his wife Kikki and their children Jerome, Zora and Levi, all living in the fictional university town of Wellington, Massachusetts. Each of these characters have their own different, yet intertwined, storyline, but it’s the relationship of Howard and Kikki that anchors the book. An act of infidelity tests their love in ways it has never been tested before; perhaps in a romantic comedy Howard and Kikki would be calmed by the idea that love conquers all, but Smith’s characters live outside the world of montages and all-resolving embraces.