Moody Blues or The Surprising Way a Book Can Affect My Day

So I am reading The Member of the Wedding
by Carson McCullers. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it is a story about a twelve year-old girl who is rather out of sorts with the world because her brother is getting married (and also one suspects because she is a twelve year-old girl – she does appear rather caught in the middle between childhood and growing-up-ness, and uncertain where she fits in). She gets the idea into her head that she will run off with the bride and groom and become a member of their wedding – that the three of them will live together from here on out and that this will “fix” things in her world.

It is not a terribly uplifting story, nor is she the most sympathetic character. She is rather hard and prickly, mean to those around her for no reason other than her own out-of-sorts-ness – even when they are trying to help. It is easy to empathize with her, mind you (we’ve all been there, right?), but not so easy to sympathize. It is also not the easiest story to read as a result. As I have mentioned before, I like to read to get lost in another world or another life – and this is not a world or life I wish to get lost in. And yet I am finding that the story is having a strange and powerful effect on me nevertheless – it is making me also feel out of sorts with the world.
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Since I started reading it, I have found myself feeling at sixes and sevens with the world. At first, it was just when I was reading – my mood actually darkened, the world got heavier, and things felt wrong. But as I have gotten deeper into the story (it’s a shortish story, mind you, so “deeper in” is to be understood relatively) and I guess therefore into the character, I have been unpleasantly surprised to find that the dark mood is extending to the times around reading as well.

I wonder if this happens to other people – do you get so absorbed, even in something you are not particularly enjoying, that it affects your mood/day? Do you ever find yourself reacting (dare I say overreacting) to regular life things in a way that is unlike you (or is an exacerbated version of you) because you are in a mood brought on by what you are reading, by some made-up person’s life/emotions/hardships/stress?

Or maybe it’s just me…

Regardless, let’s just say I am eagerly awaiting the end of The Member of the Wedding and the return to my own moods. They are more than enough for me (and those around me) to handle without someone else’s (and someone not real at that) glomming on and adding to or altering them!