A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is about four friends growing up through the decades brought together by their mysterious friend Jude. This novel goes through the themes of friendship, trauma and abuse. Overall one of the best written pieces of fiction I have ever read. It’s diverse and real and somehow that isn’t even the main topic. That being said I do not recommend anyone near my age to read this, no warning could’ve ever prepared me for the contents in this book. Yanagihara has a way of storytelling that effortlessly combines the stories of many into a single strand of fate that seems so perfect yet tragic, and by the of the book you’re wondering if it was ever meant to be at all. These characters that I’ve read about feel so real and incredible that I find myself at times wondering if I could ever meet these people. Granted, that some parts are of course, inevitably, going to be grand and story-like but the heartbreak and emotions really hit you like a train, no matter how fictitious their lives are. Reading this book it felt like you grew up with these people and in some 800 pages you’ve known them for their whole lives. In this book people come and go and every time seeing them no matter how small always leaves me content with what I know. The people who stay only make the trip to the back cover worthwhile. The storyline of this book is simply incredible. However, I’m not here to only praise the story telling. I am here to praise the little paragraphs of hope and tragedy that really connected this book together. While reading this Yanagihara has a way of really creating characters that feel authentic, I don’t know how to explain it. It actually felt like the characters wrote about themselves, the depth about our protagonist Jude seemed like he could’ve only been the person to write, not Hanya, not anyone. He has these moments that make you think and appreciate the things you care about. I don’t know what it is but there are these moments of not only him but the people around him who go through these things and without any epiphanies, you find yourself having one. This book is so well thought out and each person you read goes back to this Jude, and I still look back and look at my life now and it breaks me every time.
This whole time I’ve been praising this book for its genius but there are issues in this book that I wished had less intensity to. This is why I praise the book so much yet never wanting to recommend it because Yanagihara wrote a tragic story with no apologies or second thoughts. She held nothing back. The themes of the book do include abuse and not only physical but emotional and sexual, at young ages too. Reading the book I didn’t anticipate the maturity levels to go so deep but here we are. These issues are issues of child abuse and in some ways the foster care system but it’s so complex because as you’re reading the book you want so bad for justice for peace for a character who deserves peace but in the end it’s like your hopes never stood a chance. A point that haunts me to this day is realizing that while Jude suffered at the hands of his abusers we have to make peace with the fact that without them, we wouldn’t have the genius of Jude. I didn’t know how to make out of it when I first read it and I don’t know why I’m so affected by it but reading all the abuse and people it hits you so, so hard because I guess a part of me also has to make peace with the fact that the people you try so hard to forget sometimes are also the people who made you into the person you are, in both good and bad ways. Which just goes to show already how good this book is but in reality it’s dark. It’s bleak. The happy moments are happiest because the darkest moments are dark. I recommend this to anyone who can handle trigger warnings of rape, abuse, and suicial tendencies. But these are really adult topics and even I will say that some parts really took me a second to take in, it’s not for the lightest of hearts. Don’t think that because I throw all these warnings you’re gonna have a fun time discovering, trust me when I say I cried for two hours while reading the last 100 pages. The next two days weren’t kind either. Nothing. Nothing could ever prepare me for this book.
Comments