Summary
The narrative resumes about five years after Jude's adoption. Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm go to a party hosted by friends they know from their college days. At the party, Willem reflects on how he has not stayed close with many people from college and how he feels conflicted about his success and the progression of his career. Willem feels some nostalgic pleasure in being around his old friends, but he also knows that the four of them are gradually growing apart and that JB seems to be particularly unhappy. By this time, Willem is very busy traveling for his acting career. He owns an apartment and has had a serious relationship with a woman named Phillipa. However, Willem found it hard to fully commit to his relationship with Phillipa because it conflicted with his ability to spend time with Jude. At thirty-six, Willem feels conflicted about what his vision of adult life will look like. Willem thinks about the phone call he received from Andy in the period shortly before Jude's adoption. At that time, Jude was self-harming more seriously than ever before, but Willem had been unaware because he was off filming in Europe. Andy pressures Willem to spend more time with Jude and be more observant of him. Ever since then, Willem has noticed that Jude can be secretive and often doesn't tell Willem the whole truth about his health or how much pain he is in.
Jude is preparing to attend Malcolm and Sophie's wedding, even though the couple has a tumultuous relationship. Jude's life at this point is good: he has paid off his apartment and is preparing to renovate it. He is not experiencing any physical pain, and he is earning a lot of money from his job as a partner at a corporate law firm. Jude has now worked there for five years, and he enjoys the work. He also volunteers his time providing free legal advice to local artists. Jude initially made the decision to work at a corporate firm after he realized that his health was only going to deteriorate and he would gradually need more and more accommodations if he wanted to be able to lead a functional and independent life. The salary he could make by working at a corporate firm could ensure that he would be able to pay for the things that would help to make his life as good as possible. Once Jude starts his new job, he is able to buy a new apartment on Greene Street, which is much larger and better suited to his needs. Jude continues to be deeply grateful for his friendships, even though he worries that Willem's strong bond with him might have been a factor leading to the collapse of Willem and Phillipa's relationship.
Since moving to the apartment, Jude has been simultaneously saving both for renovations and for a surgery that he hopes will improve the appearance of the scars on his back. However, Andy tells Jude that the surgery is too dangerous and unlikely to be successful. Jude is frustrated with the news, but he accepts that it means he will be able to move forward with the renovations sooner. Malcolm tactfully ensures that the apartment is set up in such a way that it will be functional if Jude begins to use his wheelchair more frequently, or even permanently. While this friendship remains close and loving, JB is continuing to spiral downward due to his drug usage. His mother and aunt have tried to intervene, and JB is sporadically attending therapy, but he refuses to believe that he is actually an addict. JB is also bitter because he feels his friends have abandoned him: while his own career seems to have peaked and declined after his early success, they are all advancing rapidly in their respective fields. JB finds himself spending more time with fellow drug users, including a wealthy and spoiled artist named Jackson, who encourages JB's drug usage. Deep down, JB knows that his college friends are more caring and loyal than the people he currently spends his time with, but he is too stubborn to admit it.
As JB finds himself unable to stop using drugs, Willem, Jude, and Malcolm come to his apartment to stage an intervention. They are trying to show JB how much they care about him, but JB becomes angry and mocks Jude's limp and physical disability. Willem punches JB. JB wakes up in the hospital and realizes how much pain he has caused his friend. He doubts Jude will ever forgive him.
Analysis
Throughout their twenties and into their thirties, the bond between the four friends is the emotional center of their lives. As they move into their mid-thirties, however, they begin to experience pressures that threaten to pull them apart. For some of them, these pressures take the form of romantic relationships. Jude is a notable character because, due to his history of trauma around sex and his trust issues, he does not seek out emotional or romantic intimacy with anyone. He prioritizes succeeding in his demanding career and maintaining close bonds with his friends. For the others, choices about romantic intimacy are more complex. Malcolm is drawn to the structure and stability of a long-term partnership, perhaps because of the traditional family structure in which he was raised. Nonetheless, he is also ambivalent about the permanency marriage implies. Willem's warm and open emotional demeanor makes it easy for him to fall into relationships, but he has a clear sense of priorities, and staying close with Jude is the most important thing to him. Especially as he gets older, this choice is more unusual, but Willem stays true to his convictions. His commitment to Jude at this stage in their lives foreshadows the eventual romantic bond that will evolve between the two men. The tension between social expectations of finding a partner and the reality of how the men want to live their lives shows the complexity of romantic relationships in a modern context where it can take a long time to establish a career, and where intense and long-lasting friendships can satisfy a lot of emotional needs.
Unlike the other men, JB is not making intentional choices about how he wants to live his life. He has always been portrayed as the most emotional and selfish of the characters. Unlike Willem, who earns his eventual artistic success through patience and persistence, JB gets a lot of validation early in his career, and this leads him to feel entitled. He cultivates the identity of a genius, and he seems to believe that this identity entitles him to do whatever he wants. Rather than respecting Jude's boundaries and desire for privacy, JB wants complete artistic freedom, and he also wants to feel intimacy with Jude. The characters that are able to build long-lasting relationships with Jude (such as Andy, Harold, and Willem) achieve these relationships by accepting the limits Jude sets. Sometimes, their respect for his boundaries is detrimental because it leads to them overlooking and tolerating his self-destructive behavior. However, JB pushes too far in the other direction. JB's drug addiction contrasts with Jude's destructive coping strategies. JB has had a very good and privileged life, but he still ends up behaving in dangerous and harmful ways. While Jude's behavior is clearly linked to his history of trauma, JB falls into drug usage because he is seeking escapism from his own self-absorption. The contrast between the two shows that self-destructive behavior can take many forms and stem from many causes.
While the other friends think about their futures in terms of their career and relationship choices, Jude makes choices with an eye to declining health and vulnerability. Jude greatly prizes his independence and does not want to ever be reliant on others. Through fortitude and discipline, Jude has been able to live an independent life throughout his twenties and thirties. However, he eventually accepts that he is going to become frailer as he ages. Jude's physical decline hints at the way trauma is going to impact his life: he isn't going to get better. As Jude himself vainly hopes, many narratives focus on individuals who "overcome" challenges and recover. As Andy gently explains, Jude's body is never going to get better. While Jude focuses on his physical wellness, he also does not take any steps to support his psychological recovery; therefore, his self-harming practices are not going to improve either. Rather than reaching out to others, Jude focuses on using his financial means to protect himself. While he is shrewd to realize that having more money will give him more freedom and allow him to have a better quality of life, he neglects to think about the way truly transparent and open relationships might also benefit him in the future.
