the daily muse

I'm not sure what to make of this book. It was devastating to the point of being sickening, but I still managed to read it within three days so I guess I did enjoy it to some degree. I never want to read it again though and I'm wary of recommending it to others. The novel is centered around the character Jude St. Francis, a broken individual who is intent upon self-destruction as a result of decades of emotional and physical abuse. The novel does occasionally weave in and out of the other protagonists' stories and this technique allows for us to not only learn about the tragic events which occur to Jude (they are truly harrowing and quite honestly, horrific) but also how his conflicted self is interpreted by his friends. While I can appreciate the narrative's focus on the relationships between the four friends as a way to break up its darkly graphic nature, I still found myself tiring of Jude's continual self-deprecation and complete misery. By the end of the nov