Jude St. Francis

Jude is the most central character in the novel. As an infant, he was raised in a Catholic monastery in South Dakota. The men of the monastery claimed to have found him abandoned. Jude lived at the monastery until age eight. The men of the monastery often beat Jude quite severely as punishment for any form of misbehavior, and several of the men frequently sexually abused him. When Jude was eight years old, Brother Luke—the only man there who had been consistently kind to Jude—convinced Jude that they could have a better life together away from the monastery. They snuck away together and drove to a motel in Texas. Over the next four years, Luke forced Jude to have sex with men for money in motels across the country. In the morning, Luke gave Jude school lessons, and at night, Luke forcibly had sex...