A Little Life

Quite possibly one of the finest novels I've had the pleasure of reading. Epic, devastating, enduring, challenging, deeply moving. Such confident prose that unravels the innermost thoughts of these beautifully-drawn characters while also achieving an acute sense of sonder; and also written with admirable, aching restraint of deeply challenging and confronting topics; the effects of which I feel will be impressed upon me for a long time. I've come away thinking of the astonishing depths of depravity of humanity (and especially reading this in the context of the Epstein files which is desperately resonant) but more significantly of the enduring power of human companionship and kindness, with the nuance that you must extend kindness to yourself if you find that, after all, sometimes kindness isn't enough. Don't be intimidated by its length; if anything, I almost wished it was longer with how attached I became to the characters! The pacing, developments, and revelations unfold with care, confidence, and with seeds whose significance produce immense emotional power in time, and you will be rewarded for it. Highly recommend.

A Little Life, a 700-page journey, by Hanya Yanagihara is the second 2015 Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel I have read; the first was The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota. Both of these novels I have read in 10 days, with A Little Life taking 6 – a testament to the quality of the novels. But, how do I begin with this review? Will my review do justice to this novel, and to what Hanya Yanagihara has achieved? First, the author's writing style makes this book, despite its size, very readable. For example: "They bragged of what they would be doing if they hadn't gone into this wretched industry: they'd be a curator (possibly the one job where'd you make even less than you did now), a sommelier (well, make that two jobs), a gallery owner (make it three), a writer (all right, four - clearly none of them were equipped to make money, ever, in any imagining)." Even though I've described this book as "readable", that doesn't mean the book lacks in quality prose; the novel is almost poetic; it rolls off your tongue whilst making your imagination go wild, whether it be through rich, descriptive scenes or honing on particular qualities of a character within the novel. Of course, this also means the book is subtly humorous, with lines beginning like: “There was a bathroom (unspeakable) and a kitchen (slightly less horrifying)..." Some reviewers have said that the length of the novel is too long and they have had to skip pages. For me, I was so engrossed with the novel that this wasn’t that much of an issue (though, I did skip the odd paragraph once in a while) This novel, ultimately, revolves around a man called Jude St. Francis. Don’t be mistaken, his fate has been devastatingly cruel to him. From abandonment, to (extreme) physical and sexual abuse, including (again, extreme) domestic violence, to self-harm, Jude’s life has been one that, when you read it, you will have to put the book down just give yourself a breather. But the skill of Hanya Yanagihara is such that there is never anything crude, explicit or too graphic: the writing speaks for itself. Despite the cruel unfolding and slow revelation of past events, present horrors, and future uncertainties, there were some really touching moments, I thought, in the novel too. Actually, they were jam-packed with touching moments. But, (again) the talent of Hanya Yanagihara is such that these moments didn't feel excessive or repetitive. They just flowed naturally. An example of one of these touching moments is when Jude is sleeping over at Harold's, one of his professors and for whom he's a research assistant for, and whilst in bed at his home, Jude "...pretended that they [Harold and Julia] were his parents, and he was home for the weekend from law school to visit them, and this was his room, and the next day he would get up and do whatever it was that grown children did with their parents." This, of course, to someone who has not read this novel is meaningless. But to someone who has, it is profound. And the simple-ness of this line is deceptive; it doesn’t really convey to you the emotional weight it carries (guess you have to read the novel to understand why I am saying this, right?) However, now that I have finished the novel, I must say, it is over the top (or it might not be? Do read on with the review to understand my confusion). The things Jude has been through, I'm finding it so hard to believe that one person could have been through so much (or is that my relatively sheltered life speaking?). How can someone like Jude have been through the terrible events that have marked his life, and yet carry on surviving? Not only surviving, but being surrounded by loving, devoted people and having a hugely successful career? Heck, by half way through the book, I was surprised every time Jude smiled or laughed! Or is this what this book is saying? That is, the power of human resolve; the effect of love, friendship, and meaningful relationships? And when one person has these things, no matter what they have been though in life, they can, still, smile. Jude's self-harming is also something that baffles me. As someone who hasn't been around people who self-harm (or know anything regarding the psychology of it), I just don't know if the book is over the top with the self-harming, or are there people out there whose lives are like Jude? Ultimately, for me, what this book is, is a sad, but honorable (and at time humorous and heart-warming), tale of friendship, heart-break, sorrow, regret, happiness, meaning, relationships, and life (and so much more!). Never in my life, so far, have I wished for a fictional character (am I crazy?) so much happiness and contentment. Though the book ended in a rather predictable way, it feels as though to me it is the only ending that would of made Jude happy; an ending that he needed, and maybe the reader wanted because you grow to care for Jude as much as Willem, or Harold, Andy, Julia, Richard, JB, and countless more. I will be surprised if someone reads this novel, and doesn’t reflect upon their own life, and, perhaps, even change the way in which they go about treating others. And isn’t this the best testament to how great a novel is? By how much a novel mpacts YOU.

A Little Life is nothing like I've ever read before. From just the first 25 pages It felt like I already knew so much about the characters. It's a mammoth of a book but is definitely worth the read. A Little Life is about JD, Jude, Willem and Malcolm, who are four classmates that move to New York. The book tells you about how they live in New York and how their relationship get deeper and more complicated the more they get to know each other. I don't want to say anything else but I will say that the overall book is very harrowing but very intriguing. All the characters have their own lives in the book but the main character is Jude. You learn all about his troubles in his past and what he is currently going through in the present. Everyone who reads this book is bound to feel for Jude because I know I did. It's not just the events that happen to Jude but it's the writing too, it sucks you in and you have not choice to feel all his emotions. The roller coaster of emotions he goes through, you will end up going through also, and you will be totally drained by the end of the book. This book is full of all depressing subjects and I can see why some people are saying that it is too dull and gloomy and unrealistic, but it is an addictive read, I was hooked. Once I started reading all I thought about were all the characters and what they would be doing and up to next. I never wanted to put the book down and I tried to find all the free time I could to read all 720 pages. Some people might be put off by the size of the book and the small font. I know when I first opened the book I was a little daunted about the amount of pages and the tiny font, but once you start reading you forget about all that and just notice the beautiful writing and the brilliant stories. Hanya Yanagihara's writing is a pleasure to read and makes you want never finish the book. While reading you go through every emotion ten times over and you go from feeling all warm and fuzzy inside to feeling sad and lonely. While you read you learn so much about the character but the writing isn't full of boring descriptions. I hate reading books that are full of useless descriptions that are there just to bulk out the book, but this book has no filler. All the writing is needed to make you feel for all the characters and every reader will be in tears at some point in the book. Overall I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to read a story full of character development with hard hitting subjects. No one should be put off by the size of the book because it is worth it. Yes this book is a very harrowing and and some parts a depressing but it is also an addictive and thought provoking read. I rate this book 4/5 stars

Every year I look at the Booker Prize shortlist and buy a couple of books from it, and frequently I read the winning book as well. A Little Life was on the shortlist in 2015 and has been sitting on my shelf for two years, until my break in August when I decided to actually read it, and it was well worth the wait. This is one of those books that will surely go down as a modern classic, it is so brilliant. The plot follows four friends who meet at college through life's up and downs and personal tragedies; JB an artists, Malcolm an architect, Willem an actor and Jude a lawyer. Jude is the glue to this group, and is the main focus of the narrative. There are a few chapters narrated in the first person by Willem and Harold, who is Jude's law professor, mentor and the nearest thing to a father her has. The writing of this book is sublime in its language and Hanya Yanagihara is able to write plot lines, that in some parts are harrowing, in a beautiful and lyrical way. I actually found her prose hypnotic, I was drawn into this book and couldn't tear my eyes away from the page. There are lots of difficult issues discussed in this book, rape, abuse, suicide, drug abuse, and many more but still I was entranced by this book. Hanaya Yanagihara shows a great understanding, intelligence and empathy towards these subjects. Her characterisation is again wonderful, with all her characters so true to life that at times I felt like I was reading a biography/autobiography rather than a piece of fiction. In a way A Little Life is a dark Fairytale with good, evil and romance at its centre. Jude is the main character in A Little Life, and all the other character's stories are all linked to his. In all my years of reading I don't think I have ever come across a character as damaged psychologically and physically as Jude. When we first meet him in the book we know he has physical problems and throughout the book his past is gradually revealed to the reader. Jude has experienced the best and worst of humanity through his life, and seen love in many guises from destructive love to the love of friendship that is all encompassing. Even though his story is hard to read in places, I found him a compelling character who I was really down to and wanted him to find happiness. Willem is the person whom he is closest to, a friendship that is unconditional and intense in places; it is Willem that is there for Jude at some of his lowest moments. Malcolm is different in that he comes from a wealthy family, very different from Jude who has no family and Willem whose parents are dead. His relationship with JB can be tense around the subject of race; Malcolm has a white mother and black father where as JB's parents are both black. JB is the typical troubled artist, very talented but also open to addiction. Through his story there is the time old discussion of what is art, figurative painting versus the modern art of the instillation, photography and performance art. I was really drawn into this as it something I studied with my degree and always find it a fascinating subject. To say A Little Life is a masterpiece, a Magnus opus, feels like an understatement. I have read the winner of the Booker Prize from 2015, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and have to say I think A Little Life is so much better. There are very few novels, except from the classics, that I keep to read again but this book will be added to that shelf to join other books that I found through the Booker Prize; Possession by A.S Byatt, Amsterdam by Ian MacEwan and The Goldfinch and The Secret History by Donna Tartt being on that shelf. This is a mesmerising, intelligent, all encompassing read and one that will stay with me forever. This is a monumental novel in my opinion and one I will always recommend as well as those mentioned above. A Little Life is fiction at its absolute best; the perfect novel.

I first discovered Yanagihara through her divisive first novel The People in the Trees. I found the story it told to be a grim yet fascinating one and when I heard about A Little Life I immediately wanted to read it. I ordered a paperback (I'm not a lover of hardbacks) from the States and waited with barely contained anticipation for it to arrive. The book follows the life of four best friends all the way from college to their later adult lives. The first third of the book is equally split between the four as they struggle through the years after college and look to forge their way in life. JB is an artist with a number of personal issues, Willem a kindly aspiring actor, Malcolm an insecure architect and Jude, a brilliant yet damaged man, who could do many things yet decides on a life in law. Essentially Jude is the crux of this friendship as, owing to an utterly horrific youth, his friends rally round to protect him and support him through the disabilities and fragilities he acquired along the way. After a point the book begins to focus solely on the relationship between Willem and Jude and JB and Malcolm become, for the most part, peripheral characters. They are replaced by Harold and Julia, a man and wife who meet Jude while he is at college and grow extremely fond of him. Although this shift in direction disappointed me at first (I especially enjoyed reading about JB's life and his problems in the first section of the novel) I soon slipped into this new groove and quickly began to enjoy the new narrative possibilities this change created. As a result of these changes, the end of the book comes as no surprise to the reader but, nonetheless, I found it difficult to fight back the tears. A Little Life is similar in some regards, yet greatly different to, The People in the Trees. In A Little Life, Yanagihara again confronts many of the harsh and unpalatable traits of the human condition (child abuse, self-harming, graphic violence) that turned many readers away from her first novel. However, many of the characters she writes about here display an abundance of enviable human qualities - patience, love, loyalty - that were sorely lacking in the ones she created for The People in the Trees. This book evokes strong emotion - just like People in The Trees did - but this time those emotions are more favourable than the utter contempt and disgust I felt towards the protagonists of her first novel. I won't lie, the book almost had me on the verge of tears a number of times and I'm usually a hard and unfeeling person. From the reviews I've read, many people found the book forced and schmaltzy but I found it genuinely affecting - perhaps I am getting soft in my old age. Yanagihara writes so cleverly and touchingly of the men's friendship that it genuinely helped me create a brilliantly vivid image of the friends in my mind's eye; an image which stayed with me throughout the entirety of the book. I was also able to strongly connect with the feelings of many of the characters within its pages and perhaps this helped me appreciate and enjoy them more than other readers were able. Sure, the book is long and can at times be repetitious, and in it Yanagihara has a tendency to reuse words too closely together (over and over, cried and cried, struggled and struggled, argued and argued, etc) but for me, strangely, the very mundanity of the book is one of its most endearing traits. Real-life friendships are often valued on how comfortable companions feel around each other through the more tedious aspects of our co-existence and I think Yanagihara conveyed these uninspiring moments with such skill that they became enjoyable. I will admit that there is a level of over sentimentality present, especially concerning Jude, which I can understand will turn some people off. And, speaking of Jude, his unwavering self-loathing and total inability to even begin to accept his friends' feelings about him did grate occasionally but, overall, these elements rarely bothered me that much. Although the book was long I never found it a chore and I devoured huge chunks of it in single sittings, something I always associate with powerful books that resonate with me. Before I wrap up, a warning to potential buyers: there are, just as in The People in the Trees, some very shocking scenes within this book's pages. There are graphic depictions of sexual abuse (some involving children) and brutal violence. Yanagihara does not shy away from these unpalatable acts and actions and her no holds barred approach to these scenes may rear discomfort or indeed disgust in some readers. There are also a number of intense scenes involving bodily disfigurement and self-harm that people with a queasy disposition might find repulsive and, as such, should bear this in mind when considering a purchase. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about reading it - despite A Little Life clocking in at over 800 pages long I was sorry for it to end. Hanya Yanagihara is an accomplished and emotive writer and she is quick becoming one of my favourite authors; I am excited to see what she produces in the future. For me this has been one of the most memorable, moving and engrossing books I've read in a long time. I'm off to check out the actual Man Booker Prize winner now as, if it managed to best this novel, it must be some book.

This book is absolutely brutal and is simultaneously the best and worst book I’ve read in a long time. It sucks you in, takes over your life and then spits you out at the end. It covers a whole multitude of triggering topics: child, mental, physical and sexual abuse, self-harm, suicide, illness, violence; but the writing is beautiful and bleak and unrelenting. The detail is sometimes horrific and sometimes you can’t read extensively in one sitting because it can feel overwhelming - but it’s beautiful. Jude feels real to me. I was so invested in his character’s story and his friendships and relationships were so well written. He was excellent but flawed and his behaviours and interactions were frustrating to read. The love around him brought me to tears at times. Ultimately, he was surrounded by people who love and encourage him, but the trauma he experiences and the self-hate it drives wins out in the end. Sometimes love isn’t enough. There were things I didn’t adore about the book. The female characters are few and not very developed, and towards the end I started to tire of the endless money and excellence on display at all times - there’s no mediocrity or lack of cash here, which kind of feels like literary cheating. The abuse was deeply traumatic and, as much as I was swept away in the story, I do find it hard to believe that someone so traumatised and damaged could, without much effort detailed compared to his lifetime traumas, skip into a great law college with minimal formal education. I find it unlikely that he could simultaneously excel in a legal case battle whilst descending into a drugged mental breakdown - some of the plot details were very convenient or glossy. Despite its flaws though, I loved it. I lost sleep so I could read it. I want to share it and discuss it and keep it alive in my mind. It could be the most challenging and rewarding book I’ve ever read. It’s going to stay with me for years.

A Little Life purports to be about a diverse group of four young men, all recent graduates living in New York, who are about to begin their adult lives. The book follows their development into a group of, sometimes troubled, but immensely talented and successful men. However, what the book is really about is the life of Jude, a mentally and physically damaged and severely traumatised individual. I found it a deeply disturbing and depressing read. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015 and has won countless awards and received multiple rave reviews from a variety of sources. Yanagihara has been compared to Donna Tart, one of my favourite writers. I feel as if I ought to have enjoyed it, or at least appreciated it, and expected to. But, honestly, I struggled to finish it, let alone enjoy it. It was a relief when it was finally over. Maybe it's me? Maybe I'm just not worthy or intellectual enough to "get" a book like this. I feel slightly nervous about sharing my opinions, which are in such stark contrast with those of so many literary experts, but that is what they are. Just my honest opinions. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it and, for what it's worth, it did leave me weeping. What I liked: I loved some of the descriptive prose and beautiful scene setting. I loved the loyalty and kindness of Jude's friends and family. What I didn’t like: The length - it was way too long in my opinion. I don’t mind a long read. In fact, if I'm really enjoying a book, I often don’t want it to end. But A Little Life was long in a rambling, repetitive way. It almost felt self-indulgent at times. The chronology - The book twisted and turned in time and space, leaving me lost and confused on multiple occasions, as to who was talking and where and when they were. Sometimes I would be drawn into a scene that was interesting and intriguing then it would drift into the past or the future for so long that I couldn’t remember whether the scene I had been enjoying had been concluded or what its meaning or relevance was. The style - the book was very much all tell and no show. It broke all the supposed "rules of writing" about showing through dialogue and action, and being concise. When it did show, it did so largely through thought and memory. We always seemed to always be inside the head of one of the characters and never present in the moment itself. The message - it was just so damned bleak, miserable and depressing. I can't wait to read something more fun and uplifting. I know I must seem shallow, irreverent and controversial, and maybe I am, but A Little Life just wasn’t for me.

I started reading this book because of all the reviews it received. I stopped reading about 20pages in. Certainly the kindle edition does not place any speech or conversation on a separate line and there are long descriptions including conversation just in hard to read blocks. I also found it hard to follow how it was written, flitting from in the 1st person to then suddenly looking at it from an outside perspective. That said, I did pick this book back up and persevere with it and was rewarded with a great story that I can’t help but imagine could be translated into an epic 3 hour movie. The lives of 4 young men become intertwined as they meet at college,live in New York, and spend years developing their friendship, their own characters and livelihoods. It sucks you in like a magnet next to iron filings. I at one point found myself wondering how one of the characters was doing now, long after finishing the book and jolted when I remembered he doesn’t exist. It will stay with you mainly for the memory of the characters. Be aware the detailed reviews that talk of long descriptive style of writing, repeating words (like cried and cried and struggled and struggled) as well as the horrific details of abuse of many kinds, are all true. It’s a hard read but worth the slog regardless and I will remember this book forever.

Love the my new book!

It was a pretty good story, but it was so wordy and frequently repetetive, so it was tough going. It is a very long book, and a good editor could have made it a much more readable.

I’ll be blunt upfront. A LITTLE LIFE (2015) by Hanya Yanagihara is the most soul-wrenching novel I have perhaps ever read. In the novel Yanagihara follows in minute detail the lives of four men who become friends, “a clique,” in college and continue to be close into their late fifties. JB Marion begins his work life as a “receptionist at a small but influential magazine based in SoHo that covered the downtown art scene,” with ambitions to become an artist. Fatherless since he was three, JB is of Haitian descent, tends toward being overweight, and is gay. Willem Ragnarsson, handsome and “liked by everyone” starts out as a waiter, but has his eye set on becoming a professional actor on stage and screen. In ways, Malcolm Irvine is the outlier of the group, still living at home with his parents who are a couple of mixed-race. He is wealthy and determined to become an architect. Malcolm appears to be oblivious of his appeal to others, even naïve, somewhat confused about his sexuality, and unmindful of his financial situation although generous to his friends and others when they are in need. At the core of the four friends is Jude St. Francis who holds the group together—not so much by what he does even though he is considerably bright, loyal, and hard-working, as well as determined to become a prosecutor, but because his friends care about him and Jude has needs. Parentless and with a mysterious past all of which he never speaks about and never having “a girlfriend or a boyfriend,” Jude has trouble with his legs and is frequently in pain. Although he never complains nor asks for help, his friends are very aware of his situation and go out of their way to assist Jude in as tactful of a manner as possible. Mainly set in New York City, as A LITTLE LIFE unfolds, Yanagihara brings into the fold other characters of importance including a doctor, Andy Contractor, and a former law professor, Harold Stein and his wife Judy, all of whom play important roles in in the novel, as well as a host of minor characters. It is, however, the four friends who remain central to the story, especially Jude and Willem, roommates in college and who remain the closest of the friends. The bulk of Yanagihara’s novel is told in chronicle order, but as the novel progresses, there are more flashbacks and memories, some of which get repeated with added detail as they surface, most of them revolving around Jude who becomes more and more the novel’s central character. When thinking about tragic characters in prose fiction, no one comes my mind as being more tragic than Jude Fawley from Thomas Hardy’s JUDE THE OBSCURE (1894/1895) which may be the motivation for the author’s name for her main character—Jude, “the patron saint of lost causes.” Although readers soon come to the realization Jude is a physically and emotionally scarred individual, Yanagihara’s revelations about the details of Jude’s history are painfully slow in coming—mirroring the complexity and rawness of those very memories which haunt and torment Jude. They are memories which have shaped, or rather distorted, his life. In one flashback the author reveals twenty-five years in the past, Ana, Jude's now deceased “first and only social worker” warning Jude during a hospital stay, “…you have to talk about these things while they’re fresh. Or you’ll never talk about them… and it’s going to fester inside you, and you’re always going to think you’re to blame. You’ll be wrong, of course, but you’ll always think it.” There are relatively few highs in Jude’s life and when they occur, the reader is bound to find them tearful moments of joy. The increasingly close friendship between Jude and Willem with both of them at the zenith of their careers is complex—filled paradoxically with the bounty which human relationships can contain along with enormous peril. Unfortunately, most of Jude’s life is a series of unrelenting, dreadful, terrifying, shattering lows and betrayals accompanied by self-destructive impulses which become worse and worse, adding to a man’s already burdensome childhood, youth, and life-long post-traumatic stress. Jude’s is a portrait of suffering beyond comprehension and the brutal perpetrators of his torments throughout his life are the epitome of unfathomable, monstrous human behavior. Thus, A LITTLE LIFE does not make for easy reading. It is emotionally jolting and at the same time riveting. So vivid are Yanagihara’s expose of the quartet of characters, the reader becomes one with them, making it a quintet. The author’s characters are real to life, the dialogue is vivid and genuine, and the quality of the writing as well as the tone of the novel is unswerving. Although Yanagihara’s central characters meet with sometimes staggering personal and professional successes, there are also failures and tragedies, both past and present, and always a dire cloud which encircles them all, especially Jude. Due to her immense and encompassing narrative skills, readers will eventually brace themselves so that whenever a horrifying revelation is made about Jude’s secret past or his present, there is likely worse to come. A narrative trick Yanagihara pulls a little over a quarter of the way into the novel and again at the half-way point, moving from an omniscient narrator to what clearly is a first person although not readily identifiable narrator, is bound to strike the reader as both curious and possibly even portentous. It is left up to the reader to recognize and interpret for themselves the meaning of the author’s temporary changes in point of view. She does the same switch near the book’s conclusion which eventually brings the work to its shocking climax and even more emotionally numbing, traumatic end. Clearly, A LITTLE LIFE is not for everyone. even though the novel is a modern masterpiece of writing and prose fiction and a work which will haunt the reader for a long time. The most resilient reader may very likely find there are times when they simply must close the book and exit the bleakness of the world Yanagihara creates before picking the book up again. Others may discover there are times when they simply want to throw the book across the room. Some readers may find the book impossible to finish because it is so emotionally draining. Regardless of the reader’s reaction to the novel, A LITTLE LIFE is an incredible accomplishment and a work which haunt the reader for a long time. [NOTES: (1) A LITTLE LIFE has recently been declared one of “The 20 Best Novels of the Decade” by Emily Temple for The Literary Hub on December 23, 2019. (2) The book’s cover photo is from a series of photos taken in the 1960s by Peter Hujar. The photo is titled “Orgasmic Man.” The photo is purposefully ambiguous. Is the man depicted experiencing joy or pain? (3) A stage adaptation of A LITTLE LIFE ran in Amsterdam in 2018 and 2019 with limited runs, only, most of which were in Dutch.]

Best book I've ever read! So captivating and stays with you long aftef you've finished the book

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