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A review by laurikas
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have very complicated and conflicting emotions about this book.
It's easy to grant this is the saddest most graphic book I have ever read - and during many sections I found myself quite angry (with the author, with myself, with life?). I felt I was being exploited, that my emotions were being exploited so much that at times I felt I was reading those sensationalist newspapers that like portraying people during war crimes, or mass shootings, with as much misery as possible, with as much horror as they can muster.
Also throughout the book all the different characters - Harold, Willem, Andy - kept suggesting things were going to get really bad, and I had to shake myself, what can this possibly mean, how can we get any worse than this? Why would it get any worse than this? What are we doing here? That life is brutal and sad and twisted, I can recognize, but do I really have to read 700 pages of self destruction? Of utter misery?
And all throughout the book my answer was unsure. Sometimes I felt like throwing the book at the wall, sometimes I just got so pulled in, so completely sucked into their stories... so much that I also know and recognize as well that there are some beautifully written parts, and some beautiful reflections, starting with the title (to each chapter title as well) to the characters development and their struggles. It was so real, so consuming, so moving.
However do I believe all this misery could happen to one person alone? No.
The same way happy endings can sound unreal and farfetched, so the plot here follows the same logic.
Anyway, I could write the world about this book. I will leave it here with... I got fortunate to see the live theatre play in March 2023 in London, with the most beautiful cast and directed by Ivo Van Hove and... it made the story sink in even deeper. It was extraordinary. Great achievement, and I grant you this - in the end, art is not there to be always pretty and appeasing and simple and straightforward. Art shocks and destroys and shakes and... moves us.
It's easy to grant this is the saddest most graphic book I have ever read - and during many sections I found myself quite angry (with the author, with myself, with life?). I felt I was being exploited, that my emotions were being exploited so much that at times I felt I was reading those sensationalist newspapers that like portraying people during war crimes, or mass shootings, with as much misery as possible, with as much horror as they can muster.
Also throughout the book all the different characters - Harold, Willem, Andy - kept suggesting things were going to get really bad, and I had to shake myself, what can this possibly mean, how can we get any worse than this? Why would it get any worse than this? What are we doing here? That life is brutal and sad and twisted, I can recognize, but do I really have to read 700 pages of self destruction? Of utter misery?
And all throughout the book my answer was unsure. Sometimes I felt like throwing the book at the wall, sometimes I just got so pulled in, so completely sucked into their stories... so much that I also know and recognize as well that there are some beautifully written parts, and some beautiful reflections, starting with the title (to each chapter title as well) to the characters development and their struggles. It was so real, so consuming, so moving.
However do I believe all this misery could happen to one person alone? No.
The same way happy endings can sound unreal and farfetched, so the plot here follows the same logic.
Anyway, I could write the world about this book. I will leave it here with... I got fortunate to see the live theatre play in March 2023 in London, with the most beautiful cast and directed by Ivo Van Hove and... it made the story sink in even deeper. It was extraordinary. Great achievement, and I grant you this - in the end, art is not there to be always pretty and appeasing and simple and straightforward. Art shocks and destroys and shakes and... moves us.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, 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, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Abandonment