n. A memoir or novel that focuses on extreme personal trauma and abuse.
2010
Today’s idea: Is women’s fiction plagued by "misery lit," obsessed with bereavement, child abuse and rape? Or "chick lit," obsessed with Prada handbags and landing the perfect catch? Or is it torn between the two? British writers have at it.
2010
Still, prior to the Hughes and Hughes news, the recession had yet to fully impact in the way that it has in the UK, where the story is resembling something from the worst misery lit. When Borders collapsed in the UK, it left Waterstone s as the only national chain and even that has suffered losses strong enough for it to sack its chief and reshape its business model.
2006 (earliest)
Today's Britain, we're told, is the nation of Big Brother self-exposure and of weepy David Beckham, of therapy culture, piles of roadside flowers and self-indulgent "misery lit" memoirs on the bestsellers lists.
But in much of the mystery-and-misery literature, that faith is sorely tried, as one character after another comes to grief in the threatening city.