Goodness, what to say about this book…?!
I certainly went through all the feels when reading. For at least the first half/three quarters, I thought it was great – I enjoyed the writing, I was gripped by the narrative and felt connections to the characters.
The story follows four college roommate friends into adulthood. One of the four (Jude) has terrible physical and emotional scars that he is very secretive about and it is his story that comes to dominate the novel.
All four friends find great (pretty unbelievably great) success in their respective fields (painting, acting, law and architecture) but as Jude’s backstory gradually unfolds, at first I was increasingly horrified and heart wrenched for him, until (like when you see a magic eye image and suddenly everything is different) it hit me that it was ridiculous (and manipulative writing) that so much badness would happen to one person and then I just found it at best humorous and at worst tedious. In light of this new way of seeing, everything fell down for me – the incredible success of the peer groups as well as the huge bond of love and care between them just seemed to stretch the bonds of credulity a little too far.
It was like for the first half of the book I was a rapturous evangelical believer, but then I lost my faith and everything that had seemed so deep now just seemed hollow and false.
I don’t want to be too harsh, because the writing is amazing, and while I was a believer I absolutely loved it, so maybe the fault is mine, or maybe, the writer should have embraced the ‘less is more’ approach.
