

And I thought the book tagged in the comments was bleak. This has most of the same plot points – family tragedy, religion, poverty -- mixed with an older protagonist and therefore adds exploitative and unhealthy sexual behavior, all wrapped in a light stream-of-consciousness delivery. And yet, with all these elements that should keep me at a distance, should make it nearly unreadable, I never avoided picking it and cried many times while reading.
![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png)