The Crying Book By Heather Christle

Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why - and how - do we cry?    

American poet Heather Christle has lost her dear friend Bill to suicide and must now reckon with her own depression. In this personal, lyrical book she faces her grief by researching the act of crying.   

In her Ohio home, Christle assembles a “crybrary ? in which she investigates the science and art of tears:  from their chemical composition to their depiction in literature. Moving deftly between poetry and prose,  she lays bare her own experience. Following her preoccupation with tears back to its origins, she recalls crying in a car after being dumped; lying in tears on the bathroom floor after an argument with her husband. Anticipating the arrival of her first child, she considers the tears of infants and parents. A friend  and fellow poet dies, so Heather turns to the Internet for crying folklore and remedies for tears.   

When a young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, Heather's investigation becomes political and she researches the power and meaning of “white lady tears ?. She also mines history for attitudes to crying and mental illness by exploring the relationship between 19th century feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman - who suffered from depression - and her physician Silas Weir Mitchell.   

Finally, Heather visits Bill's grave and with some help from her mother, makes peace with her own family history of depression.   

The Crying Book is an honest, thought-provoking and surprising reflection on life, loss and mental illness.   

Omnibus of five parts read by Alexandra Metaxa, featuring Paterson Joseph, Alibe Parsons, Oliver Soden and Sofia Pedersen.

Abridged by Joanne Rowntree 

Produced by Miranda Hinkley

Assistant Producer Alexandra Quinn

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in February 2020.

Poet Heather Christle meditates on how and why we cry.

American poet Heather Christle draws on scientific research, as well as her own experience, to investigate how and why we cry.