A review by mlove1113
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A Little Life was a look at a group of four friends lives. The main characters were Jude and Willem, with the other two friends, JB and Malcolm, being the supporting characters. I found this book beautifully written and introspective at times and incredibly frustrating at others. Jude has a horrendous upbringing, but refuses any help or therapy most of the time. It's so frustrating to here "Not now" a thousand times after another character asks Jude what has happened to him. You as a reader know what happens to him in the middle of the book and you want more than anything for him to share his life with the people who so obviously care about him, but you have to wait a long time to get that satisfaction. It's also a little frustrating because we get a glimpse of JB and Malcolm's mind early in the book, but then those characters get completely disregarded by the end. It's especially troubling with Malcolm because I feel like he eventually gets completely ignored. With JB, we just pop back into his life when something really bad is happening, but then once things get good for him again, he gets ignored. 
I do really appreciate a specific section in the book that I want to write down so I remember it. Jude is going to Law School and getting his Masters in Math at the same time (which the Masters really gets ignored later...) He is at a table with some lawyers and they're asking him about the similarities and differences between Law and Math. I really appreciated that part because I am currently studying Math and my fiancee is a lawyer. Most lawyers I meet say that they can never do math. I always argue with them that I think lawyers would actually make great mathematicians. I will definitely have to refer to this section of the book in my future conversations with lawyers! 
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