4.5 Stars
Every year I seem to read one 700+-page
novel. This is the one for 2015. I just finished it and feel as if I’ve been
on an emotional roller-coaster ride for the last few days. Whew!
I won’t soon forget this one.
The book is about the lives of four young men who
became friends in university and moved to New York to begin their careers. They are Willem Ragnarsson, a waiter and
wanna-be actor whose family ranched in Wyoming; Malcolm Irvine, a biracial man
from a wealthy family who is beginning his career as an architect; J.B. Marion,
the son of Haitian immigrants whose goal is to become a renowned artist; and
Jude St. Francis, a lawyer about whose past virtually nothing is known. We see how they maintain their friendships as
they become established in their professions.
Gradually, though, the focus turns to Willem and Jude’s friendship and
the revelation of Jude’s traumatic childhood.
Though the book covers about 40 years, there is
a timelessness to it. There are no
references to specific years or historical events, though it is clearly set in
contemporary times. For example, 9/11
receives no mention. This sense of
things happening in an eternal present gives the book a fable-like quality.
This is not an easy book to read. There are graphic depictions of
suffering. Abandonment, physical and sexual abuse, sexual
exploitation, rape, prostitution, addiction, self-harm, domestic violence, suicide,
and grief are detailed, so readers need to be prepared for an emotionally harrowing
experience. Most of these miseries are
revealed in flashbacks to Jude’s early life, “the snake- and
centipede-squirming muck of Jude’s past.”
The relentlessness of Jude’s traumas reminded me of Sisyphus, though
Jude has committed no great sin. The
novel can be seen as an examination of the effects of trauma. Jude emerges from his upbringing physically
and emotionally damaged: “those fifteen
years whose half-life have been so long and so resonant . . . have determined
everything he has become and done.”
Chronic pain, shame, insecurity, and self-hatred are just some of the
effects. Because of what happened to
him, Jude can think of his life only in terms of “its smallness, its
worthlessness.”
On the other hand, the book is also an examination
of friendship. Willem thinks about
friendship: “Why wasn’t friendship as
good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it
even better? It was two people who
remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or
money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going,
the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified. Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip
of miseries, and long bouts of boredom, and occasional triumphs. It was feeling honored by the privilege of
getting to be present for another person’s most dismal moments, and knowing that you could be dismal
around him in return.” Later, he tells
Jude, “’I know my life’s meaningful because . . . I’m a good friend. I love my friends, and I care about them, and
I think I make them happy.’”
Though friendship has its value, certainly
giving Jude some solace, the book also suggests that it has its
limitations. The friendships Jude has
cannot repair him. As in All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews, a
character concludes, “how hard it is to keep alive someone who doesn’t want to
stay alive.”
It is some of these friends who are a weakness
in the novel. For thematic development,
it is necessary for Jude to have friends.
The difficulty is that he has so many who remain unstintingly loyal and
concerned regardless of his behaviour.
It would be expected that some of those friends would fall away, tiring
of his repeated actions, but that is not the case. No one ever seems to outgrow a friendship. Except for Willem, Malcolm and J.B., however,
those friends are not differentiated.
Often, they are just listed: “Citizen,
or Rhodes, or Eli, or Phaedra, or the Henry Youngs” and “Andy, JB, Richard,
Harold and Julia, Black Henry Young, Rhodes, Citizen, Andy again, Richard
again, Lucien, Asian Henry Young, Phaedra, Elijah.” Willem, when trying to explain to Jude who he
is, says, “’You’re the friend of Malcolm Irvine, of Jean-Baptiste Marion, of
Richard Goldfarb, of Andy Contractor, of Lucien Voigt, of Citizen van Straaten,
of Rhodes Arrowsmith, of Elijah Kozma, of Phaedra de los Santos, of the Henry
Youngs.’”
But the characterization of Jude can only be
called amazing. His inner turmoil is
detailed so specifically that there is a vividness to his character that will
remain with the reader for a long time.
We may not approve of his behaviour and we may want to shake him and
yell at him, but we will certainly understand his motivation.
This dark and disturbing novel will leave the
reader almost overwhelmed. It is a
totally immersive read. Though it may
seem implausible in parts, it will nevertheless leave a lasting
impression. I’m in awe that all that was
accomplished in only 700+ pages.
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