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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Things you have to be okay with going into this book:
-Ambiguous endings
-Whiplash among three shorter novels, which I for a long time thought were just three novels Yanagihara had started to write, but now that I've finished it and may be under Stockholm Syndrome by the book, I am feeling more the sense that they go together
-Characters that I think a lot of people would describe as "passive" and that "don't DO anything," though I had some thoughts on how that was coded, and on how such humans do exist and can be represented in fiction, so I found it endearing and personal when others might find it infuriating?
I didn't want to look anything up after I got my first WTF of the novel, and if I had done so, I might have quit, but I'm glad I didn't, and once again this author has left me sobbing.
-Ambiguous endings
-Whiplash among three shorter novels, which I for a long time thought were just three novels Yanagihara had started to write, but now that I've finished it and may be under Stockholm Syndrome by the book, I am feeling more the sense that they go together
-Characters that I think a lot of people would describe as "passive" and that "don't DO anything," though I had some thoughts on how that was coded, and on how such humans do exist and can be represented in fiction, so I found it endearing and personal when others might find it infuriating?
I didn't want to look anything up after I got my first WTF of the novel, and if I had done so, I might have quit, but I'm glad I didn't, and once again this author has left me sobbing.
Content Warnings
adoption
The sections fit together well, and the way she writes, I wanted full narrations of everything in between the generations we get to know so well. I would gladly read a trilogy of full-length novels rather than a single three-part novel about these families.
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
3.5
No creo que se pueda comparar con "A little life", son bastante diferentes en cuanto a temáticas y desarrollo; sin embargo se puede notar la construcción de personajes en detalle que es a lo que nos acostumbró en el otro libro.
No le doy más estrellas porque al ser 3 historias, en 1 nunca conecté con nada, lo cual le quita mucho contenido que a mi parecer estuvo meh.
No creo que se pueda comparar con "A little life", son bastante diferentes en cuanto a temáticas y desarrollo; sin embargo se puede notar la construcción de personajes en detalle que es a lo que nos acostumbró en el otro libro.
No le doy más estrellas porque al ser 3 historias, en 1 nunca conecté con nada, lo cual le quita mucho contenido que a mi parecer estuvo meh.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
R
Hanya Yanagihara does not write books for the faint of heart. Her first book, A Little Life, was an emotional rollercoaster, deeply upsetting at times and yet, also full of unconditional love. It was, at times, a very hard book to read. However, it is still one of my favorite books - I think because she doesn't shy away from the dark edges of some people's reality.
While still writing about love, loss, and struggle, To Paradise, didn’t evoke the deep emotional reaction in me (which is fine, I was emotionally wrung out after A Little Life). To Paradise was a trip to an alternative past and (hopefully) future. Written as three separate novels centered around characters with the same names (David, Edward, Charles/Charlie, and Grandfather) and a location (NYC’s Washington Square) central to each story, HY imagines three worlds either slightly or materially different from history. This quote from page 247 strikes me as a possible thesis:
“Suppose the earth were to shift in space, only an inch or two but enough to redraw their world, their country, their city, themselves, entirely?”
In each section of the book, I found the David character to be a lost soul, struggling to find love, purpose and to live up to the expectations of his family. There is a second thesis somewhere in that idea.
Book One takes place at the end of the 19th century in an America broken up after the Civil War and specifically in New York (part of the Free States) where gay marriage is legal and accepted. David is the eldest son of the prominent New York Bingham family who struggles with depression and purposelessness. He is pulled between a solid, arranged marriage with an older Charles or a passionate love with a mysterious, penniless Edward.
In Book Two, this shift is subtle, and character driven. Taking place in 1993, this idea about ‘shifting in space’ is more about a father’s regrets and how family dynamics can influence a child’s life. Here, David lives with another older Charles. Their story unfolds during a dinner party for Charles’ best friend, Peter, who is dying of AIDS, while David carries a letter from his estranged, Hawaiian father.
Book Three imagines the largest “shift” in a futuristic America ravaged by pandemics and the extreme measures taken to protect citizens. New York has been divided into Zones and Americans are living under an authoritarian government. Charles, a scientist working on infectious diseases, moves from Hawaii with his husband Edward and their child to Zone 3. Book three is told in a series of letters from Charles to his friend Peter in the United Kingdom and flashes forward to 2093 to the story of a female character who meets a mysterious David.
I devoured this book – all 700 pages; - reading with rapt attention. I was drawn into her descriptions of unrequited or misplaced love, imagined pasts and futures and devotion of family. Don’t look too hard for the reincarnation of the characters – I don’t think she intended them to be connected generations. I think it was more of a literary device to explore stories with a slight “shift in space.”
While still writing about love, loss, and struggle, To Paradise, didn’t evoke the deep emotional reaction in me (which is fine, I was emotionally wrung out after A Little Life). To Paradise was a trip to an alternative past and (hopefully) future. Written as three separate novels centered around characters with the same names (David, Edward, Charles/Charlie, and Grandfather) and a location (NYC’s Washington Square) central to each story, HY imagines three worlds either slightly or materially different from history. This quote from page 247 strikes me as a possible thesis:
“Suppose the earth were to shift in space, only an inch or two but enough to redraw their world, their country, their city, themselves, entirely?”
In each section of the book, I found the David character to be a lost soul, struggling to find love, purpose and to live up to the expectations of his family. There is a second thesis somewhere in that idea.
Book One takes place at the end of the 19th century in an America broken up after the Civil War and specifically in New York (part of the Free States) where gay marriage is legal and accepted. David is the eldest son of the prominent New York Bingham family who struggles with depression and purposelessness. He is pulled between a solid, arranged marriage with an older Charles or a passionate love with a mysterious, penniless Edward.
In Book Two, this shift is subtle, and character driven. Taking place in 1993, this idea about ‘shifting in space’ is more about a father’s regrets and how family dynamics can influence a child’s life. Here, David lives with another older Charles. Their story unfolds during a dinner party for Charles’ best friend, Peter, who is dying of AIDS, while David carries a letter from his estranged, Hawaiian father.
Book Three imagines the largest “shift” in a futuristic America ravaged by pandemics and the extreme measures taken to protect citizens. New York has been divided into Zones and Americans are living under an authoritarian government. Charles, a scientist working on infectious diseases, moves from Hawaii with his husband Edward and their child to Zone 3. Book three is told in a series of letters from Charles to his friend Peter in the United Kingdom and flashes forward to 2093 to the story of a female character who meets a mysterious David.
I devoured this book – all 700 pages; - reading with rapt attention. I was drawn into her descriptions of unrequited or misplaced love, imagined pasts and futures and devotion of family. Don’t look too hard for the reincarnation of the characters – I don’t think she intended them to be connected generations. I think it was more of a literary device to explore stories with a slight “shift in space.”
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It really didn’t have to be that long
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
*Gathers up pieces of shattered heart*
The 3-part; LGBTQ+; alternate America founding-mythology; AIDS epidemic; colonialism-indicting; epistolary post-pandemic Dystopian thriller you didn’t know you needed.
I haven’t a hope of describing all it elicits in me because I finished the last sentences a few minutes ago but it’s scrambled me all up inside.
The 3-part; LGBTQ+; alternate America founding-mythology; AIDS epidemic; colonialism-indicting; epistolary post-pandemic Dystopian thriller you didn’t know you needed.
I haven’t a hope of describing all it elicits in me because I finished the last sentences a few minutes ago but it’s scrambled me all up inside.