WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

sob story
    n 1: a sentimental story (or drama) of personal distress;
         designed to arouse sympathy [syn: sob story, sob stuff]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

26 Moby Thesaurus words for "sob story":
   bathos, bleeding heart, cloyingness, goo, hearts-and-flowers,
   maudlinness, mawkishness, mush, mushiness, namby-pamby,
   namby-pambyism, namby-pambyness, nostalgia, nostomania,
   oversentimentalism, oversentimentality, romanticism, sentiment,
   sentimentalism, sentimentality, slop, sloppiness, slush,
   soap opera, sweetness and light, tearjerker