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lilkstew 's review for:
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I don't know where to begin with this book.
On one hand, it has some truly killer quotes. The writing is nice, and the story is engrossing. I don't know the last time I flew through such a large book so quickly. I love slow novels that immerse the reader into the characters' lives, and this book did just that. I guess I can kind of understand why people love this book since the reader is able to get so attached to the characters.
However, this book had a ton of issues. Everyone talks about how sad this book is, but they push that point far enough. Yeah, it's sad, but it's sad to the point that it nearly loses meaning. People parade this book around like a trophy, bragging that it made them cry for hours, but they fail to mention the endless content warnings that this book warrants. If you can imagine a trigger, it's probably here. I have never encountered a more tragic character than Jude. Ever! I don't think Jude was necessarily an unrealistic character because his story very well could have been real. Yet he didn't feel realistic; his story felt like it existed for shock value. I can't really understand what the author was trying to do. Was this an exploration of deep, unrelenting sadness and trauma? Was it an experiment to see how far she could push both characters and readers? I don't know. It ended up reminding me of Geek Love in a way. Actually, the ending reminded me of My Sister's Keeper, too. Both Geek Love and A Little Life were full of extreme trauma, and both books felt like the authors had lost control of the content. In A Little Life, it felt like the trauma was included only to make Jude more and more pitiful. It got to points where it was pure, voyeuristic trauma porn. It seemed like the author didn't really explore it or have anything to say about it. She was just presenting these horrors, saying: Look here! Look at how much I can fuck up my characters! Isn't this sad and shocking?
It's also strange that the author, a woman, focused almost exclusively on the sadness of gay men. It almost seemed to take a reactionary perspective, as if it were showing that gay men are in for a life of sadness and suffering and endless misery. I haven't fully worked out my thoughts on this part, though. I don't want to say Yanagihara isn't allowed to write about this, but I still think it's weird. Tasteless maybe? I know that if a man wrote a parallel novel about lesbians, I would raise some major eyebrow. It isn't really the same comparison, but still.
One of my main stylistic gripes was the overuse of pronouns. God, there were so many hes! He this and he that. Who is he? The antecedent was unclear so often. It felt like an oversight during the editing process. Was it purposeful? Did it show how the characters all blended together, their lives interweaving to the point of irreversible codependency? I don't know. Regardless, I think it muddled up the prose and made this long, long, long book even trickier to wade through. The dialogue also felt super unrealistic. The characters addressed each other by name in nearly every line, which came across as very contrived.
On one hand, it has some truly killer quotes. The writing is nice, and the story is engrossing. I don't know the last time I flew through such a large book so quickly. I love slow novels that immerse the reader into the characters' lives, and this book did just that. I guess I can kind of understand why people love this book since the reader is able to get so attached to the characters.
However, this book had a ton of issues. Everyone talks about how sad this book is, but they push that point far enough. Yeah, it's sad, but it's sad to the point that it nearly loses meaning. People parade this book around like a trophy, bragging that it made them cry for hours, but they fail to mention the endless content warnings that this book warrants. If you can imagine a trigger, it's probably here. I have never encountered a more tragic character than Jude. Ever! I don't think Jude was necessarily an unrealistic character because his story very well could have been real. Yet he didn't feel realistic; his story felt like it existed for shock value. I can't really understand what the author was trying to do. Was this an exploration of deep, unrelenting sadness and trauma? Was it an experiment to see how far she could push both characters and readers? I don't know. It ended up reminding me of Geek Love in a way. Actually, the ending reminded me of My Sister's Keeper, too. Both Geek Love and A Little Life were full of extreme trauma, and both books felt like the authors had lost control of the content. In A Little Life, it felt like the trauma was included only to make Jude more and more pitiful. It got to points where it was pure, voyeuristic trauma porn. It seemed like the author didn't really explore it or have anything to say about it. She was just presenting these horrors, saying: Look here! Look at how much I can fuck up my characters! Isn't this sad and shocking?
It's also strange that the author, a woman, focused almost exclusively on the sadness of gay men. It almost seemed to take a reactionary perspective, as if it were showing that gay men are in for a life of sadness and suffering and endless misery. I haven't fully worked out my thoughts on this part, though. I don't want to say Yanagihara isn't allowed to write about this, but I still think it's weird. Tasteless maybe? I know that if a man wrote a parallel novel about lesbians, I would raise some major eyebrow. It isn't really the same comparison, but still.
One of my main stylistic gripes was the overuse of pronouns. God, there were so many hes! He this and he that. Who is he? The antecedent was unclear so often. It felt like an oversight during the editing process. Was it purposeful? Did it show how the characters all blended together, their lives interweaving to the point of irreversible codependency? I don't know. Regardless, I think it muddled up the prose and made this long, long, long book even trickier to wade through. The dialogue also felt super unrealistic. The characters addressed each other by name in nearly every line, which came across as very contrived.
This book also gave me nightmares. Ha. The one positive thing I think I will take away is the desire to love the people around me more. That's good and all, but I probably could have come to that conclusion without this book. I don't think this book is evil or that it doesn't deserve to exist; that isn't what I'm saying at all. I think that this book has a lot of really critical issues that people gloss over since it's an evocative and intimate book that makes readers feel very real, very heavy feelings.
Some edits to this review:
I have spent a month thinking about this book, and I have some more things to say. First, I am not arguing for censorship. I don't think that this book didn't deserve to be published. I don't think that it's criminal or abhorrent. I don't think that it's evil or punishable. I just think its purpose is murky. It's 100% effective at drawing readers in and creating strong emotional connections to characters, and it is great at being devastating. I think it also has a lot of meaningful points and perspectives. However, it feels like a joke at times. It is hard to take seriously certain aspects of the writing style and the constant snowballing tragedies. I don't know. I guess there's something to be said for the way that this book has kept my attention for this long after finishing it and reading a ton of other books in between. I raised my rating half a star because I think I was too heated upon immediately finishing the book to be fair. Regardless, this is a very tricky book that is sometimes rewarding but sometimes unforgiving and reckless. Weird.
Some edits to this review:
I have spent a month thinking about this book, and I have some more things to say. First, I am not arguing for censorship. I don't think that this book didn't deserve to be published. I don't think that it's criminal or abhorrent. I don't think that it's evil or punishable. I just think its purpose is murky. It's 100% effective at drawing readers in and creating strong emotional connections to characters, and it is great at being devastating. I think it also has a lot of meaningful points and perspectives. However, it feels like a joke at times. It is hard to take seriously certain aspects of the writing style and the constant snowballing tragedies. I don't know. I guess there's something to be said for the way that this book has kept my attention for this long after finishing it and reading a ton of other books in between. I raised my rating half a star because I think I was too heated upon immediately finishing the book to be fair. Regardless, this is a very tricky book that is sometimes rewarding but sometimes unforgiving and reckless. Weird.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent