Extracts from correspondence:
"I just got up to the bit where Jude does the horrible imitation of himself in front of the mirror - alone, after cutting himself - and I actually had to put the book down and stop reading for a bit (hence this email). This book is brutal. A few chapters ago I thought fleetingly about not even reading any further at all - at least not just now, maybe coming back in a few months time - because I could feel it upsetting me in the ways that it was calling to mind, even through only faint echoes, people from my own life."
"The book is just not playing around - it means to destroy you. It has some of the most intense passages I've ever read. Do take care with it."
"I need a bit more processing time - it is definitely a book that has a huge impact ... but I'm still not sure if it's actually any good. (I think the answer is 'yes, with reservations, but maybe the reservations don't matter'.)"
"I just got up to the bit where Jude does the horrible imitation of himself in front of the mirror - alone, after cutting himself - and I actually had to put the book down and stop reading for a bit (hence this email). This book is brutal. A few chapters ago I thought fleetingly about not even reading any further at all - at least not just now, maybe coming back in a few months time - because I could feel it upsetting me in the ways that it was calling to mind, even through only faint echoes, people from my own life."
"The book is just not playing around - it means to destroy you. It has some of the most intense passages I've ever read. Do take care with it."
"I need a bit more processing time - it is definitely a book that has a huge impact ... but I'm still not sure if it's actually any good. (I think the answer is 'yes, with reservations, but maybe the reservations don't matter'.)"
