“If I were a different kind of person, I might say that this whole incident is a metaphor for life in general: things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.”
A novel that may well be purposely frustrating - the subject matter is horrifically grim and the writing doesn't offer much escape. There are several spots where your impulse is to scream at some of the characters to do something, yet you know they won't. Often, this is a problem with novels (or possibly more often, movies. Roger Ebert referred to it as the "idiot plot."), where you have to withstand people following an indefensible line of action that could be fixed with one simple action. While you could definitely make that argument here, where several of the characters seem to be enablers despite their best intentions. But this is a book of extremes - a character so scarred by a childhood that is one horrible situation peopled
This all starts off as a story of four young men, recent graduates of an unnamed college in the northeast. They are close friends despite their disparate backgrounds. In an unusual flip, it is the two white kids who come from more economically disadvantaged backgrounds (to be fair, we never know the racial background of Jude, as he has no idea himself; the book is rather vague on this point, but I, rightly or wrongly, put him in the white camp). They are living in New York and just starting out in the careers (and life). JB wants to be an artist, Willem an actor, Malcolm an architect and Jude is interested in both theoretical math and the law. They will all be wildly successful in their chosen endeavors. One of the potentially irritating things about this book is everyone's success - this is not a book that dwells on the travails of common life - everyone, eventually, is wealthy and spends much of their time eating at fine restaurants, going to the theater, or a gallery opening, or whatever else it is that the privileged of New York do. We never get a sense of time here either - no external events that root the story in a particular time, other than its "current" (there are cell phones and some other things that at least give us that). Again, though, I think these are just ways of focusing on the real horror story that is here.
The focus of that horror is Jude. Jude has a limp; Jude is careful to never show his body to anyone; Jude cuts himself, repeatedly, in scenes that are difficult to read. His friends will become gradually aware of these things, and the causes, as the novel progresses. But Jude is extraordinarily reluctant to reveal his past, and even when he does, fanatically unwilling to do anything about it.
We learn first of the monastery he lived, beginning soon after he was born (and found in or near a trash bin as a baby). While the monks there do provide for his care, they also prey on him emotionally and physically. Jude's recollections are at their most guarded here - what is happening is obvious from his retelling, but the descriptions are not that (compared to later) graphic. Jude eventually befriends the seemingly kind Brother Luke, and they run away together when Jude is around 10. Brother Luke turns out to be a methodical predator, using Jude for financial support and for his own gratification. These are hard sections to read - child abuse gone hyper.
Jude will manage to get away from this, but not to anywhere better - his story has a long way to go before he manages to break free. But of course he doesn't really ever break free. The time that was supposed to be his childhood will always be with him. It is Brother Luke that teaches him to cut himself, and this is often his only release decades after.
Jude does derive support from those around him, particularly his 3 college friends. One of his law professors ends up legally adopting him at age 30, and event of profound importance to Jude. But all this only soothes the pain inside, it can never make it completely go away. Interestingly, Jude becomes a highly respected (and feared) corporate attorney, known for being tough both in the courtroom and with his fellow employees. Which is in marked contrast to his behavior around his friends, where he is apologetic to a fault. The one exception, though, is in letting them into his past - in that respect, he is the take no prisoners lawyer. One of the faults I had early on was the inability of any of his friends to be able to get him to go to a psychologist or other mental health specialist. There are a few attempts early on, but are given up quickly. The author answers this somewhat later on in a an at least somewhat satisfactory manner (and to be fair, Jude does eventually end up seeing a psychiatrist, but only of necessity and not in a manner that leaves much room for success).
The other odd thing about the book is the nature of the relationship between Jude and Willem. For a good part of the book they are best friends, but they become lovers (sorta, kinda) later on. On the one hand, it isn't that surprising, but both characters claim to not be gay. Willem, who spends much of the early novel going from girlfriend to girlfriend, does own up to having had male lovers, but is quite adamant in explaining that he's not gay once he is in a relationship with Jude, he just happens to be in love with Jude. Jude, whose attitude toward sex is to difficult to discuss here, is apparently not attracted to men in the least, but seems to just stick with what he knows.
This is a book worth reading - its not pleasant, at times its suffocating, but it goes places few novels ever will. Days after finishing, I still do not know what to make of Jude's life; if you add and subtract the various pieces, where do you come out?
