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When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
I read that book because of all the hype around it… but I want to warn everyone better than what people have been saying : This is a trauma p*rn book. You will only read pain, sadness, a lot of stuff that I can’t name without putting a trigger warning And on the top of all of that, you will never see happiness in that book, not even 1% . That book is unnecessary to read and is just trauma over trauma on the top of trauma. If something bad happens to you, you got trigger, is emotionally sensitive, or just a little attached to your happiness, do not read it You will just end up depressed after each chapter
I’m only two chapters in, but I’m really enjoying the in-depth character development. I’ve started taking notes to keep track of everyone’s personalities and backgrounds. For those who’ve read this book, how did you differentiate the characters?