Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Seven years since A Little Life? Seven years since my heart felt torn out by that maddening, manipulative, wonderful novel? So, okay. Right on time to pull my innards out again.
Yanagihara makes us work, and I like that, but it certainly hurts a lot. My brain was working on many levels: differing styles matching differing time frames and narrative genre, whirling with trying to fit the characters with the same names to their predecessors even when there were no familial connections, only thematic ones, and in the last section, dealing with the literary urgency and the horror that our pandemic-land mirrors with the author's late 21st century New York City.
The big questions: what makes a life? what makes a life worth living? how do we make our freedom or the denial of our freedom anything more than a piece of dust? should we try?
Yanagihara makes us work, and I like that, but it certainly hurts a lot. My brain was working on many levels: differing styles matching differing time frames and narrative genre, whirling with trying to fit the characters with the same names to their predecessors even when there were no familial connections, only thematic ones, and in the last section, dealing with the literary urgency and the horror that our pandemic-land mirrors with the author's late 21st century New York City.
The big questions: what makes a life? what makes a life worth living? how do we make our freedom or the denial of our freedom anything more than a piece of dust? should we try?
In three parts, three different stories, in different times are told, about men usually named David and Charles an their chosen families. Usually someone is also from Hawaii.
Yanagihara explores class and race divides in relationships, and we see gay relationships in alternate histories and speculative futures. In each story he also explores how people make decisions behind governments for the greater good and also as individuals to protect their loved ones—how people live with these decisions and justify them.
It was epic in scale and memorable. I enjoyed the speculative nature of the novel—seeing queer relationships and families in imagined worlds. What I found difficult was sympathizing with all of the characters, even when I understood their decisions. In the balance, I didn't like all the characters that I think I was supposed to.
Yanagihara explores class and race divides in relationships, and we see gay relationships in alternate histories and speculative futures. In each story he also explores how people make decisions behind governments for the greater good and also as individuals to protect their loved ones—how people live with these decisions and justify them.
It was epic in scale and memorable. I enjoyed the speculative nature of the novel—seeing queer relationships and families in imagined worlds. What I found difficult was sympathizing with all of the characters, even when I understood their decisions. In the balance, I didn't like all the characters that I think I was supposed to.
NO NO NO MO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO JO NO N O NON O NO NO NO NO NO KO NO
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
DNFed halfway through that middle part is boring. I loved the 1st part though
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For grunne karakterar til at den funkar som karakterdriven roman, for lite bakgrunn og handling til at den funkar som handlingsdriven roman - godt gjort å få til det på over 700 sider...
In my opinion this should have been three separate books. The writing is beautiful, but I was disappointed that Yanagihara did the bare minimum to pull these stories together into something that would make sense to compile and market as a 700 page novel.