Reply #34: Oh certainly I know exactly what you mean

[YankeyMCC]

Perhaps the first time this happened to me was when I read "Mice and Men" I felt true, deep grief over Lenny. This was before I had any close family member die, in a very real way it was my first expirence with the death of a person I cared about.

"East of Eden" and really almost all of John Steinbeck's works have characters that I've come to care about deeply.

More recently it was the Hyperion novels by Dan Simmons, and in particular the character of Aenea, her fate affected me deeply.

Also recently was "Lavinia" by Ursula Le Guin and the title character, even though I'm a middle aged man and the character is a young woman.