I love books with screwed-up characters. Characters that take the wrong road at every intersection. Down and out. Messed up people living horrible lives. Characters that fight to get out of bed, then struggle to get into their trousers.

Why?

They make me feel normal.

They fall, come close to giving up. Life slaps them in the face. I feel their pain. I root for them. They find someone or something that struggles with them; helps them dig through the muck.

Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don’t. Doesn’t matter either way. The point is, people find company in life’s struggles. Encouragement comes from knowing that someone else swims upstream through life.

I finish the book knowing that others have the same problems, or worse. That’s why I tend to root for the underdog. After all, someone should make it.