so unbelievably bleak was this novel. it was a good thing I did it as a book-on-CD because I don't think I could have pushed thru all the terrible things, slowly revealed, that happened to the main character Jude. he is abandoned as a infant, taken in by monks who in turns physically or sexually abuse him. the one shining light that seems to care for him plans their escape but he turns out to be a manipulative, pimping pedophile. and when this despicable man is caught, Jude is confined to a foster home where more sexual abuse awaits him so he runs away - into the arms of a sexually depraved lunatic doctor who locks him in his basement, treats his various STDs, and ultimately runs him with down with a car after he's had his fill of him. how many terrible things can befall one person? ('more' is the answer when he takes up with an abusive partner that humiliates him, rapes him, and throws him down the stairwell)
and yet, in adult life, Jude is loved. by his college roomates, by a law professor that adopts him when he is almost 30, by a longtime friend that will forgo a sexual relationship in order to give Jude the peace and love he craves. and this is where the book falls apart for me; why did they love him?