schymek 's review for:

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

4.0

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What he wouldn't know until he was much older was that no one was ever free, that to know someone and to love them was to assume the task of remembering them, even if that person was still living.

This novel is more of a loosely connected three-parter. The characters, David and Charles, Eden, Wesley etc., are all re-curring persona's throughout each part, with David and Charles at the centre of it.

First Part: set in an alternate version of 19th century America, wherein New York is a free state, a country of its own, and David Bingham is a descendant of royalty, set to inherit his grandfather's estate in Washington Square. David is set to marry the widower Charles, yet falls for another.
> Loved the mood of it, the alternative history vibe and just to have a same-sex relationship set during that time period. David's struggle with ownership and love, the ambivalence between adventure and security is very striking.

Second Part: at the height of the AIDS epidemic, with David and Charles entangled with one another, Charles sick, yet acting as a security blanket for David, who is once more caught between the longing for adventure and the security of a stable relationship.
> This one is split in two, with David as a Hawaii'an descendant, out on his own in New York, trying to reconfigure his life as a gay man outside of his family. The second part is from the POV of David's bed-ridden father, who thinks back on his life, and the co-dependant relationships that have lead to his parenting mistakes. This part was definitely more depressing, but probably also my favourite.

Third Part: presents the latter half of the 21st century, with one pandemic following the other, and society gradually turning into a dystopia.
> This time it is Charlie, and her grandfather Charles. Very drawn out. Super depressing. Chapters alternate between Charlie's POV and correspondance between Charles and his friend Peter across multiple years, practically chronicalling the collapse of American society. Def bogged the book down in my opinion but was well-crafted, in terms of dystopian writing.

If you liked A Little Life you might enjoy this, though it is tonally very different (and for sure not even 5% as torture porn heavy - thank god).