Book Blog #343: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

 

Title: A Little Life

Author: Hanya Yanagihara

# of Pages: 914 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

Review: Only read this book if you want to be VERY sad. 

I went into this book blind; this cover of the "constipated-looking guy"(I now know he is not constipated) kept coming up in my feed, but that was about all I knew of the book. I didn't know that it would be so long and yet so addictive (in the "there's a horrible car crash but I can't look away" type of addictive). It's definitely not for the faint of heart - there's very graphic descriptions about SO many triggers (e.g. abuse, trauma, suicide).

Let's start with the good parts of A Little Life:

• Yanagihara is clearly a very capable, though provoking writer. The detailed dreamy descriptions of NY conjure a feeling of nostalgia in the reader that is clearly reflective of the characters feelings of starting their young adult lives in the city. Even though this aspect of her writing doesn't drive the plot forward, I appreciated the quality of the writing and how well it invokes the imagery of the setting. 
• I became very invested in the characters, especially Willem and Andy who are such selfless characters.
• I'm a huge sucker for stories about friendship (the turmoil of friendships being tested, the power of having supportive friends), and this book had SO much of this. 
• The story explores a lot of thought-provoking topics: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? What makes someone your parent, your partner, your friend? What is success, what is trauma, how do they define you?   
• It forces the reader to face the idea of growing old, outliving loved ones, or leaving loved ones behind. I consider an occasional reminder of potential loneliness and the inevitably of death to be a good thing. 
• It's a tear jerker (I was crying on and off through the last 20-30% of the book). 

And now the bad:

• BYOB - this is a 800+ page pity party for Jude, who doesn't seem to accept help despite being surrounded by generous, supportive people. 
• Fun drinking game: take a shot anytime a character apologizes. It felt like a majority of the dialogue was some variant of "I'm so sorry." 
• The third person POV switching was actually not too bad in this book (although it was mildly annoying when Yanagihara only uses pronouns, and the reader has to use process of elimination to figure out which male character's POV it is). However, there are a few random chapters from the FIRST PERSON POV where you also have to deduce who's POV it is - it's so random and unnecessary.
• It's way too long. At around 70% through, I couldn't believe this book wasn't over yet and wanted Yanagihara to cut the fluff and get to finishing the story. With the POV switching, there's a lot of repetition of events that could have been organized more efficiently. 
• The story is truly slice of life - characters that don't hold much importance will be randomly introduced as if the reader should already know who they are. Some character get a long drawn out detailing of their background, and then fade into into the background as they become less important to Jude. 
• The lack of diversity amongst the characters in terms of success made this story less realistic. Yes many of them know each other from college, but for so many people in the arts to succeed at such a major scale is just unbelievable. 
• There's some shaky messaging on trauma. Some may interpret it as "trauma will never be forgotten, and the only true escape is death" which may give people that suicide is the best option.
• It's a tear jerker (imagine crying for hundreds of pages, drink water folks).

Yes, I'd recommend this book BUT be prepared for what you're getting yourself into. I felt the sadness from this book even when I was not directly reading it (it's a HUGE downer if you couldn't already tell), so don't read this during a time when it'll affect your enjoyment of other things going on in life.