To echo what other people said, I feel like the book got to the point where the pain was never ending and almost cartoonish. I described the plot to a friend and it sounds so ridiculous when summarized because every bad thing that could possibly happen to someone happens to the MC. I do think the prose is beautiful, but to me, it felt like a sad book just to make you sad vs a sad book that explored other themes within the sadness. I also went into it thinking it would follow the friendships between the 4 men but that wasn’t the main focus at all- the book ends up just narrowing in on the MC’s pain. YMMV, but I really did not like it.
To echo what other people said, I feel like the book got to the point where the pain was never ending and almost cartoonish. I described the plot to a friend and it sounds so ridiculous when summarized because every bad thing that could possibly happen to someone happens to the MC. I do think the prose is beautiful, but to me, it felt like a sad book just to make you sad vs a sad book that explored other themes within the sadness. I also went into it thinking it would follow the friendships between the 4 men but that wasn’t the main focus at all- the book ends up just narrowing in on the MC’s pain. YMMV, but I really did not like it.