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thethirteenthbeach 's review for:
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
okay here goes. this was a whopper of a book. a whole 720 pages. I'm going break this down into three sections, fittingly titled the "the good, the bad and the ugly" and then possibly a final section touching on why it is getting a 5 out of 5 stars from me.
**THE GOOD:**
there is a lot i could talk about here. I am a sucker for subtitles and overly organised paragraphs, so i am going to break this sub-paragraph into further sub-paragraphs.
*The Writing:*
at best the writing in *A Little Life* is sublime. Despite the heavy subject matter of the book, the actual wording is reasonably easy to process which made for quite a quick read. I thought Yanagihara did a really amazing job of creating an "atmosphere" with her writing. Each section i found my perception of the book shifting slightly and the way i viewed the characters and the events differently as well. I have read several books now that take place over a long period of time, however none have quite captured the "feeling" of change quite like this book. I am a firm believer that life is broken up into segments which almost appear to a have a different texture. Some are darker and more velvety, some lighter and would feel like felt to the touch, some are like velcro and so on. I thought *A Little Life* captured this elegantly and in the most realistic way i have read before. *Lispenard Street* felt distinctly rough and a little leathery and brown and toward the end of *The Happy Years* the colours were more yellow, lime and blue and an almost silk or linen texture. However, i digress. My main point here is that the imagery was really perfect in my mind and i found that this really helped with my full immersion into not only the lives illustrated in the book but also the presence of time shifting and life and with it, the world, changing.
*The Happy Parts:*
Despite this book's reputation for being gut-wrenchingly sad, i found myself feeling warm and happy almost as frequently as i was heartbroken. Between and sometimes amongst each awful thing that was occurring within the book was an equally heartfelt gesture of love or friendship. At the end of *The Postman* I even saw myself crying with happiness. I think this is a really important thing to mention and something i will talk about later as well; that part of the reason this book is so heartbreaking is not because of the constant discussion of trauma and the awful and often unjust events that occur but because of the love and dedication and friendship and joy it contains as well. It is exactly as the title suggests; a little life, and with it comes all the ups and downs and sorrows and triumphs of an entire lifetime (if a little exaggerated). I think, for me at least, this is what made the book just so impactful...
*The Characters:*
How could I review *A Little Life* without talking about the characters. While not actually my favourite part of the book, i tip my hat to Yanagihara for making such loveable and hateable characters (at the same time). Jude made me both want to protect him; spend the rest of my life holding him close to me and looking after him but also run away and not have to face the weight of his experiences. Willem made me want to love and be with my friends but also made me realise the flaws of even the greatest people and so the list goes on. I think even the fact that i refer to these characters as if they are real demonstrates something about them. I remember early on in the book, readjusting my reading position as not to embarrass myself in front of Jude and Willem. While my slight delusions could be put down to how late it was at night i think it also speaks volumes about the connection that can be made with the characters throughout the book.
*The Organisation:*
This may actually be one of my favourite things about the book, if a little nerdy of me. Like i stated before, i'm a sucker for organisation and i thought the way that *A Little Life* was sectioned and put together was really beautiful. To begin with, the fact that each section had three chapters just satisfied me very deeply but i think my favourite thing above all else about the organisation of this book was the naming of the sections. I love the way that each section clearly represents a section (or a texture like i said earlier) of their lives. *Lispenard Street* wasn't just the name of a street or a place they lived, it represented their youth and finding their way; the apartment that represented both beginning to find your way in life and also imperfection, rot and a lack of beautiful. On a deeper level, this was reflected in their lives. The same can be said for *The Postman;* a realisation of character and past and for the first time, Jude; *Vanities;* Not just about the self but about a particular moment in time; *The Axiom of Equality;* Jude's mindset and the inevitability of life; *The Happy Years;* Semi-ironic and demonstrative of life and the ability to find solace in dark time; *Dear Comrade;* The value of those in your life and finally a second round of *Lispenard Street;* highlighting everything that has changed and what remains. I could talk about it for hours but i shall not.
**THE BAD:**
Despite my love for this book, it has a few undeniable flaws (in my opinion).
*Story Line*
I couldn't help but feel that at points the story line was a little unbelievable and i found it especially hard to try and suspend my believe in a book that is so grounded in reality and the highs and lows of *actual* life. I found that this made it hard for me to feel incredibly sad about what was happening because the likeliness of so many terrible things happening to one person in a lifetime is so incredibly low. If i argue with myself enough i can almost convince myself that in one way, shape or form the events are somehow connected, as having a rough start to your life often has repercussions later, and the type of person that Jude is, seems to attract another certain type of person, possibly because of his vulnerability and fragility. Despite this reasoning, it does seem like a bit of a stretch and i will admit that for me it is one of the biggest drawbacks of this book. Even though it is fiction and i would expect a certain level of "interesting events", i can't help but see how it affected my emotional connection to the novel at times. Linking off of this is the "sad factor". A second big drawback for me was that underlying feeling that i had throughout the book; "this is a novel that is *trying* to make me sad". And i really can't help but feel this way. Sometimes it felt an event was trying to cause a reaction more than it was (and this comes back to my previous point), trying to detail a part of life.
*The Characters*
I have very little criticism for the characters. The one drawback i have is in sense a double edged sword. The sheer volume of the book. In Allende's *House of the Spirits* several generations and deaths and many political comings and goings are adequately described in fewer pages than *A Little Life* tells the story of one (minus the politics as well!). I think this comes down to the wordiness of the book. I said before that i found the novel easy to read (language wise) and i don't take that back, the wording isn't any more convoluted or unnecessarily complex than it needs to be, however, it cannot be denied that a huge amount of time in the book is spent on details; details of environments, of thoughts, of little events and so on. Like i said before, this is a bit of a mixed blessing in my opinion. I think the book could be considerably cut down and at times (despite my guilt at this), i couldn't help but feel as though the characters were too much locked in cycles of their own thought and i just wished for it to move on a little faster. That said, i consider myself quite sensitive to overly descriptive writing and the constant discussion of how "sad" one is (i don't think i ever finished the final book in the *Harry Potter* series for this reason), and i didn't feel the annoyance of obsession over thoughts as frequently as i have seen other reviews mention. Instead, i felt it was almost the right balance between immersing me in the characters thoughts enough that i was really connected to them (and began to see them in everything i did), yet without making me want to throw the book down and get back to my own life.
**THE UGLY**
I think i would find it hard to write a review without talking about the subject matter in some more depth.
*Subject Matter*
This is definitely something that it most discussed about the book and it is within reason. I have not read or watched one single review where the darkness and weight of the subjects in this book have not been mentioned several times. I didn't want any spoilers before i read the book but i knew from "spoiler free" reviews i had read and my friends' warnings that this was going to be a difficult book. Because of this i felt almost over prepared. At every point during reading i was expecting the absolute worst and while the content of the book was incredibly heavy i did feel prepared and for this reason i didn't feel it had as much as an impact on me as other people had suggested. When recommending this book i would definitely mention the triggers and content warnings, however, personally I have witnessed just as bad in books and other films i have watched and read and although that does not dismiss the significance of them and certainly does not take into account people's personal experiences, i did not find it nearly as heavy or difficult as i had expected.
**WHY 5 STARS?**
Hearing so many people discuss how sad this book made them, and how awful the things that happened were i felt as though maybe it would take away the punch and i wouldn't find myself being as upset as these people had said they were. In the end i was. I cried intermittently throughout the whole last two sections and for a while after finishing as well. I however don't think this was because of the sadness of the actual events. I have viewed many movies which have contained similar circumstances and happenings and none of which have made me tear up. It is a combination of everything i have mentioned before that made the difference (i think); the connection to the characters, the journey, the way that life changes, the different eras of living and also the release of having been immersed in somebody else's life for 720 pages. I think knowing how sad the book was supposed to be in advance made no difference to how i experienced it in the end. I wasn't necessarily sad i was just... again... it was a little life and it... ended. The second and most important reason this got 5 stars was because of the impact it has had. I have read many flawless and beautiful books but what separates this from some of them which did not get 5 stars is how i still think about it now. How i see Jude and Willem in what i do and i think about what happened in the book at random times during the day. After all... it was a little life.
**THE GOOD:**
there is a lot i could talk about here. I am a sucker for subtitles and overly organised paragraphs, so i am going to break this sub-paragraph into further sub-paragraphs.
*The Writing:*
at best the writing in *A Little Life* is sublime. Despite the heavy subject matter of the book, the actual wording is reasonably easy to process which made for quite a quick read. I thought Yanagihara did a really amazing job of creating an "atmosphere" with her writing. Each section i found my perception of the book shifting slightly and the way i viewed the characters and the events differently as well. I have read several books now that take place over a long period of time, however none have quite captured the "feeling" of change quite like this book. I am a firm believer that life is broken up into segments which almost appear to a have a different texture. Some are darker and more velvety, some lighter and would feel like felt to the touch, some are like velcro and so on. I thought *A Little Life* captured this elegantly and in the most realistic way i have read before. *Lispenard Street* felt distinctly rough and a little leathery and brown and toward the end of *The Happy Years* the colours were more yellow, lime and blue and an almost silk or linen texture. However, i digress. My main point here is that the imagery was really perfect in my mind and i found that this really helped with my full immersion into not only the lives illustrated in the book but also the presence of time shifting and life and with it, the world, changing.
*The Happy Parts:*
Despite this book's reputation for being gut-wrenchingly sad, i found myself feeling warm and happy almost as frequently as i was heartbroken. Between and sometimes amongst each awful thing that was occurring within the book was an equally heartfelt gesture of love or friendship. At the end of *The Postman* I even saw myself crying with happiness. I think this is a really important thing to mention and something i will talk about later as well; that part of the reason this book is so heartbreaking is not because of the constant discussion of trauma and the awful and often unjust events that occur but because of the love and dedication and friendship and joy it contains as well. It is exactly as the title suggests; a little life, and with it comes all the ups and downs and sorrows and triumphs of an entire lifetime (if a little exaggerated). I think, for me at least, this is what made the book just so impactful...
*The Characters:*
How could I review *A Little Life* without talking about the characters. While not actually my favourite part of the book, i tip my hat to Yanagihara for making such loveable and hateable characters (at the same time). Jude made me both want to protect him; spend the rest of my life holding him close to me and looking after him but also run away and not have to face the weight of his experiences. Willem made me want to love and be with my friends but also made me realise the flaws of even the greatest people and so the list goes on. I think even the fact that i refer to these characters as if they are real demonstrates something about them. I remember early on in the book, readjusting my reading position as not to embarrass myself in front of Jude and Willem. While my slight delusions could be put down to how late it was at night i think it also speaks volumes about the connection that can be made with the characters throughout the book.
*The Organisation:*
This may actually be one of my favourite things about the book, if a little nerdy of me. Like i stated before, i'm a sucker for organisation and i thought the way that *A Little Life* was sectioned and put together was really beautiful. To begin with, the fact that each section had three chapters just satisfied me very deeply but i think my favourite thing above all else about the organisation of this book was the naming of the sections. I love the way that each section clearly represents a section (or a texture like i said earlier) of their lives. *Lispenard Street* wasn't just the name of a street or a place they lived, it represented their youth and finding their way; the apartment that represented both beginning to find your way in life and also imperfection, rot and a lack of beautiful. On a deeper level, this was reflected in their lives. The same can be said for *The Postman;* a realisation of character and past and for the first time, Jude; *Vanities;* Not just about the self but about a particular moment in time; *The Axiom of Equality;* Jude's mindset and the inevitability of life; *The Happy Years;* Semi-ironic and demonstrative of life and the ability to find solace in dark time; *Dear Comrade;* The value of those in your life and finally a second round of *Lispenard Street;* highlighting everything that has changed and what remains. I could talk about it for hours but i shall not.
**THE BAD:**
Despite my love for this book, it has a few undeniable flaws (in my opinion).
*Story Line*
I couldn't help but feel that at points the story line was a little unbelievable and i found it especially hard to try and suspend my believe in a book that is so grounded in reality and the highs and lows of *actual* life. I found that this made it hard for me to feel incredibly sad about what was happening because the likeliness of so many terrible things happening to one person in a lifetime is so incredibly low. If i argue with myself enough i can almost convince myself that in one way, shape or form the events are somehow connected, as having a rough start to your life often has repercussions later, and the type of person that Jude is, seems to attract another certain type of person, possibly because of his vulnerability and fragility. Despite this reasoning, it does seem like a bit of a stretch and i will admit that for me it is one of the biggest drawbacks of this book. Even though it is fiction and i would expect a certain level of "interesting events", i can't help but see how it affected my emotional connection to the novel at times. Linking off of this is the "sad factor". A second big drawback for me was that underlying feeling that i had throughout the book; "this is a novel that is *trying* to make me sad". And i really can't help but feel this way. Sometimes it felt an event was trying to cause a reaction more than it was (and this comes back to my previous point), trying to detail a part of life.
*The Characters*
I have very little criticism for the characters. The one drawback i have is in sense a double edged sword. The sheer volume of the book. In Allende's *House of the Spirits* several generations and deaths and many political comings and goings are adequately described in fewer pages than *A Little Life* tells the story of one (minus the politics as well!). I think this comes down to the wordiness of the book. I said before that i found the novel easy to read (language wise) and i don't take that back, the wording isn't any more convoluted or unnecessarily complex than it needs to be, however, it cannot be denied that a huge amount of time in the book is spent on details; details of environments, of thoughts, of little events and so on. Like i said before, this is a bit of a mixed blessing in my opinion. I think the book could be considerably cut down and at times (despite my guilt at this), i couldn't help but feel as though the characters were too much locked in cycles of their own thought and i just wished for it to move on a little faster. That said, i consider myself quite sensitive to overly descriptive writing and the constant discussion of how "sad" one is (i don't think i ever finished the final book in the *Harry Potter* series for this reason), and i didn't feel the annoyance of obsession over thoughts as frequently as i have seen other reviews mention. Instead, i felt it was almost the right balance between immersing me in the characters thoughts enough that i was really connected to them (and began to see them in everything i did), yet without making me want to throw the book down and get back to my own life.
**THE UGLY**
I think i would find it hard to write a review without talking about the subject matter in some more depth.
*Subject Matter*
This is definitely something that it most discussed about the book and it is within reason. I have not read or watched one single review where the darkness and weight of the subjects in this book have not been mentioned several times. I didn't want any spoilers before i read the book but i knew from "spoiler free" reviews i had read and my friends' warnings that this was going to be a difficult book. Because of this i felt almost over prepared. At every point during reading i was expecting the absolute worst and while the content of the book was incredibly heavy i did feel prepared and for this reason i didn't feel it had as much as an impact on me as other people had suggested. When recommending this book i would definitely mention the triggers and content warnings, however, personally I have witnessed just as bad in books and other films i have watched and read and although that does not dismiss the significance of them and certainly does not take into account people's personal experiences, i did not find it nearly as heavy or difficult as i had expected.
**WHY 5 STARS?**
Hearing so many people discuss how sad this book made them, and how awful the things that happened were i felt as though maybe it would take away the punch and i wouldn't find myself being as upset as these people had said they were. In the end i was. I cried intermittently throughout the whole last two sections and for a while after finishing as well. I however don't think this was because of the sadness of the actual events. I have viewed many movies which have contained similar circumstances and happenings and none of which have made me tear up. It is a combination of everything i have mentioned before that made the difference (i think); the connection to the characters, the journey, the way that life changes, the different eras of living and also the release of having been immersed in somebody else's life for 720 pages. I think knowing how sad the book was supposed to be in advance made no difference to how i experienced it in the end. I wasn't necessarily sad i was just... again... it was a little life and it... ended. The second and most important reason this got 5 stars was because of the impact it has had. I have read many flawless and beautiful books but what separates this from some of them which did not get 5 stars is how i still think about it now. How i see Jude and Willem in what i do and i think about what happened in the book at random times during the day. After all... it was a little life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury