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So you think that Yanagihara switched POVs because being inside Jude's head while he was reparented and tried therapy and it didn't work was too painful?

Also, I don't think we know that therapy never helped Jude throughout most of the book because I don't think he never tried it. The first time he was "forced" to go to the psychiatrist he barely spoke to him.

Do you think that Jude realized that he needed therapy? I thought maybe he thought he was too damaged from the beginning.

Last night, I read an interview with the author and she said that she doesn't believe in talk therapy. Her main problem with it is that in other medical professions, the doctor realizes that a person is too damaged and it's time to help them die. In talk therapy, the doctor is always supposed to help the patient live.

Thanks for writing back. I'm very interested in discussing this book.

Thanks for the info about the author interview. The other book I read by her also is about a very mentally ill person. However, I disagree with her regarding other doctors. The ideal is that we should be left to die when sick, but it is rare. Hopefully, medical schools will start training doctors not only to heal but to realize when not to.

I did struggle with Jude not being helped with therapy (and medication). I do believe in therapy but realize a person has to believe to be helped. Was Jude too damaged to believe? That's a thoughtful question. And would that same damage not have affected someone else the same way?

I also believe the physician who treated all Jude's medical problems was providing a type of theapy. Even that wasn't working, though. A very sad book.

That is a good question - was Jude too damaged to believe? Perhaps we'll never know because of the author's bias against therapy. I wonder what would have happened if Willem had lived? This book has certainly stayed with me.