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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
Wat een heerlijk boek. Fijne vorm met de drie delen en daarbinnen brieven en documenten. Laatste deel vond ik minder interessant, setting sprak me niet zo aan. Maar mooie personages met interessante (familie)relaties.
following a familial line from a dystopian 1800’s nyc all the way to the early 3000s, through three separate vignettes, hanya yanagihara paints a small collection of deeply complex and human characters struggling to find both their internal and external paradise. incredibly moving and impossible to put down, this book has quickly become one of my favorite reads of all time. i cannot recommend this book enough !!
it was longer that it should have been, and the separate stories were somewhat less connected than I wanted, but I LOVED the third book, loved the first, and liked the second enough. the exploration of the relationship between queerness and the state wasn’t nuanced but was interesting in her imaginative contexts. Overall, really enjoyed it but wanted the stories to be more thematically consistent.
"E poi volterò ad ovest e comincerò il mio lungo volo sull'oceano,
sbattendo le ali diretto da te, da lei, e forse anche da suo marito,
fino a Londra, ai miei amori, alla libertà, alla sicurezza, alla dignità
- al paradiso."
Il libro è diviso in tre sezioni molto diverse, che hanno in comune praticamente solo i nomi dei personaggi che continuano a ripetersi. Sono ambientate rispettivamente nel 1893, nel 1993 e nel 2093.
La prima sezione mi ha intrigato abbastanza come inizio, anche se non posso dire di aver apprezzato il personaggio di David. La seconda ambientata a Manhattan nel 93 non mi ha convinto quasi per niente.
David del 1993 è quasi senza personalità, il suo rapporto con Charles è insulso. La sua storia sulle Hawaii è interessante, ma è penoso sentirla raccontare solo tramite lettere. E' stata questa che mi ha fatto crollare il libro.
L'ultima parte è la più forte del libro, e la scrittrice lo sa bene dato che le ha dedicato metà libro (che stona oltretutto considerando che le altre due hanno avuto meno spazio).
Diciamo che mi aspettavo molto di meglio da questo libro, è più un 3,5 che un 4 pieno.
Forse ha fatto il passo più lungo della gamba, ed è venuto fuori qualche cosa che non è brutto ma non è bello come poteva essere.
sbattendo le ali diretto da te, da lei, e forse anche da suo marito,
fino a Londra, ai miei amori, alla libertà, alla sicurezza, alla dignità
- al paradiso."
Il libro è diviso in tre sezioni molto diverse, che hanno in comune praticamente solo i nomi dei personaggi che continuano a ripetersi. Sono ambientate rispettivamente nel 1893, nel 1993 e nel 2093.
La prima sezione mi ha intrigato abbastanza come inizio, anche se non posso dire di aver apprezzato il personaggio di David. La seconda ambientata a Manhattan nel 93 non mi ha convinto quasi per niente.
David del 1993 è quasi senza personalità, il suo rapporto con Charles è insulso. La sua storia sulle Hawaii è interessante, ma è penoso sentirla raccontare solo tramite lettere. E' stata questa che mi ha fatto crollare il libro.
L'ultima parte è la più forte del libro, e la scrittrice lo sa bene dato che le ha dedicato metà libro (che stona oltretutto considerando che le altre due hanno avuto meno spazio).
Diciamo che mi aspettavo molto di meglio da questo libro, è più un 3,5 che un 4 pieno.
Forse ha fatto il passo più lungo della gamba, ed è venuto fuori qualche cosa che non è brutto ma non è bello come poteva essere.
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great storylines and writing (ofc) but for some reason it is just so hard to go through. VERY slow pacing, a little too slow. I don’t need a whole page to understand the tiniest details.
Extremely well written. I liked the way that the characters all had the same names, although I did find it confusing at first because I couldn't tell if they were related or not. My only complaint is that the paradise mentioned in the title may or may not be Great Britain which is revolting to me (and why .25 stars were removed).
JFC she's done it again, beautiful and dark with so much joy and hope at the core that really makes us question the circumstances we are born into, the evils of the past we have no control over and the horizon towards a better world or paradise that we all dream of moving towards.
To Paradise will break your heart by highlighting humanity’s weaknesses across three hundred years.
It’s a book made for a book club. Begging to be discussed. Those who love to dive into the themes of time, progress, hope, relationships, fear, and politics will have plenty to mull over. It offers commentary on the state of the world but remains detached through the fiction. Each jerk forward in time produces a chasm that the reader feels compelled to fill in. At times the lack of resolutions are frustrating. The unexplained details whisper questions throughout the novel and I found the things Yanagihara left to be the loudest.
The first section of the book takes place in 1894. Here there is an alternate history of North America, where the continent is fractured into multiple colonies and unions - with New York being a part of The Free States - a place where racial freedom persists, as well as freedom of sexuality. The implications of this swap in history immediately grabbed my attention but is glossed over as the characters and their wealthy lives take over. With gender not being an issue with who you love, we are presented with class and wealth filling the void, and insecurity, alway insecurity.
In part two, we pick up in 1994 in the same townhome that we entered in part one, but with a different gay couple. Here we are faced with the struggles of a wealthy older man and his younger, less successful partner. The older man entertains and cares for his friends who are succumbing to AIDS, while the younger one tries to find his place in his partner’s world, while secretly deconstructing his childhood trauma’s created by his mentally-unwell father.
As the book ends, we are in future New York City. Global warming has forced everyone into wearing cooling suits to go outside. Sexual freedom has been pushed into the closet, for the first time there in 200 years. Government oppression, global pandemics, fake news, supply chain shortages, and isolationism take center stage - not too much of a stretch from today. A man’s love is shown to his granddaughter and his best friend through a series of actions and letters. Each vignette illustrates the man trying to cope with the responsibility he bears from creating this hostile world that is trying to destroy them.
To Paradise was very different to A Little Life (Yanagihara’s previous novel which made me openly sob). It reminded me of Cloud Atlas in terms of structure and style - but instead of vague allusions to reincarnation, we are connected over the centuries by loosely related characters all struggling to overcome something in order to find their own escape to paradise.
While reading, I’d think, “This is definitely my least favorite part so far,” only to return in awe by the ideas it challenged in the end. The way the past and future echo each other throughout each section gives the reader a unique perspective, an omnipresent context, that focuses the themes of the novel. Yanagihara is a brilliant writer. My copy of To Paradise is marked up by so many passages underlined so I can read them over again. The novel is not short. At 704 pages it’s daunting, but the way it flows, I was able to read it in less than 10 days.
Other book reviews: https://enoughread.com/
It’s a book made for a book club. Begging to be discussed. Those who love to dive into the themes of time, progress, hope, relationships, fear, and politics will have plenty to mull over. It offers commentary on the state of the world but remains detached through the fiction. Each jerk forward in time produces a chasm that the reader feels compelled to fill in. At times the lack of resolutions are frustrating. The unexplained details whisper questions throughout the novel and I found the things Yanagihara left to be the loudest.
The first section of the book takes place in 1894. Here there is an alternate history of North America, where the continent is fractured into multiple colonies and unions - with New York being a part of The Free States - a place where racial freedom persists, as well as freedom of sexuality. The implications of this swap in history immediately grabbed my attention but is glossed over as the characters and their wealthy lives take over. With gender not being an issue with who you love, we are presented with class and wealth filling the void, and insecurity, alway insecurity.
In part two, we pick up in 1994 in the same townhome that we entered in part one, but with a different gay couple. Here we are faced with the struggles of a wealthy older man and his younger, less successful partner. The older man entertains and cares for his friends who are succumbing to AIDS, while the younger one tries to find his place in his partner’s world, while secretly deconstructing his childhood trauma’s created by his mentally-unwell father.
As the book ends, we are in future New York City. Global warming has forced everyone into wearing cooling suits to go outside. Sexual freedom has been pushed into the closet, for the first time there in 200 years. Government oppression, global pandemics, fake news, supply chain shortages, and isolationism take center stage - not too much of a stretch from today. A man’s love is shown to his granddaughter and his best friend through a series of actions and letters. Each vignette illustrates the man trying to cope with the responsibility he bears from creating this hostile world that is trying to destroy them.
To Paradise was very different to A Little Life (Yanagihara’s previous novel which made me openly sob). It reminded me of Cloud Atlas in terms of structure and style - but instead of vague allusions to reincarnation, we are connected over the centuries by loosely related characters all struggling to overcome something in order to find their own escape to paradise.
While reading, I’d think, “This is definitely my least favorite part so far,” only to return in awe by the ideas it challenged in the end. The way the past and future echo each other throughout each section gives the reader a unique perspective, an omnipresent context, that focuses the themes of the novel. Yanagihara is a brilliant writer. My copy of To Paradise is marked up by so many passages underlined so I can read them over again. The novel is not short. At 704 pages it’s daunting, but the way it flows, I was able to read it in less than 10 days.
Other book reviews: https://enoughread.com/
challenging
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i am genuinely unsure of what i just read? i absolutely adored a little life and couldn’t put it down, but this book took me a long time to read due to how dense it was and hard to digest. as a reader i prefer to follow a character or a consistent generation over a period of time and i wish that each section of the book had a consensus, though there is a beauty to how speculative they are. my favorite section was section one, but the letters from charles to peter in section three were beautiful and what i enjoyed reading the most. reading this author is like reading other peoples minds in real time. she truly has a talent for description and the drama is daily thought. section 2 felt very cliche and was my least favorite, but i enjoyed david’s perspective there and his fathers much more than charlie’s perspective in section 3. i wanted to know what happens to edward and david in section one, david and his father in section 2, and to charlie and david in section 3, but i suppose that it not the nature of this authors style. if anything this novel is purely reflective and internal.