Here's a thought. Can you look at the book objectively and not as the work of a friend? If his choices are bad for everyone who doesn't know him, then he made a book for a limited group of people, and maybe no one but himself. So what would be the point of publishing independently instead of saying, making 10 copies and handing them out? Anyone can do it "their way" that doesn't make it good or right or appealing to anyone but the writer. Sounds like he made personal journal.