I can't say I enjoyed the book, but I had to finish it. It was so well written I feel like I know the characters. I still think about them and the story line, which doesn't happen often with me. The story is very tragic. There isn't anything uplifting in this book. I got to page 500 and thought the book should end there. There was still another 100 pages. After finishing it, I wished I had stopped because the tale continued to spiral downwards all the way to the final page. Though a couple of the characters always had an optimistic outlook to the bitter end.