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A review by nanblabber
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
5.0
In defense of a little life
I actually don’t think that this book needs defending. I really don’t. With it being what it is, the book itself should be enough.
First of all, I want to say that I do understand why this book can be the most hated for some and most love for others. There’s no in-between. I thought a lot about this while reading and after finishing and I came to the conclusion that it highly depends on the life you have and I mean this in the best way possible. I’m glad the story itself is unreadable for some people because of its sadness and pain; I’m glad it seems unbelievable for some, I'm glad many don't have build up tolerance for this kind of thing. glad it's Impossible in a way that “oh this can’t be. This much pain is too much for one person. This life is unbelievable.” in a way, even though I understand from where these people are coming from, it also pains me to see people calling it a “pain porn.”
I went in with all those expectations and not expectations – “this will be painful,” “take all the pain you can imagine, author pushed everything into one character,” “it makes you care for characters, and then they get ruined” this was what everyone said – and I was curious of what it was. Still, I was sure it would feel forced. I didn’t expect to like the book at all.
And then I read it was absolutely different from what I expected.
And it got me thinking, hard, about life and about my reaction to this story. After reading for a few hours, I sometimes sat there and thought, why am I not having a harsher reaction? Why does it make sense to me? Why, for a moment there, I thought, “I would do the same”? And then I would go, “Aaah, that makes sense. I just know how this feels close enough to be able to navigate myself.”
After thinking and rethinking and (talking to my mom), I realized that it depends on life, your life, and how you look at it. Depending on that, you either will love or hate this book. It either will anger you or make you sad.
It’s not “pain porn” (I really wish people would stop calling it so). if I would want to make a parallel to something more "real life", I would say it's like watching crime documentaries, where you see what, how, when, where the horrible thing happened to a person. they are a "survivor" they are being so brave, giving an interview, helping the investigation and you watch and admire and in an hour you are done. you know this person is alive and living their lives. you don't know what they are feeling now right at this moment tho, do you know if a person who was tortured, held captive, was rescued is still alive? - because you didn't see anything outside of that interview you watched 5 years ago. are they having a good life ? are they cured? did they go to therapy? did it help? you don't know.
this book gives you the window to the part that you don't know. the bad case. the human case.
It’s not a collection of artificially made-up problems pushed into one character – it’s about trauma and response. It’s about the privilege of life where you don’t have to be on edge. It’s about the help that you get, but it doesn’t help.
It’s about forgiveness and how it’s hardest to grant it to yourself.
It’s about the journey and the possibility of it not ending well, no matter how many people love you, no matter how much you yourself want it to work. No matter the effort – pain sometimes just grips you and doesn’t let you go.
And I’m genuinely happy in a naïve, not condescending way that so many people’s lives are in a place where they think this story is mainly made up.
There’s nothing new that I can say about writing. It is incredible and beautiful but always up to preference. The story structure is so well made so meaningful; I can’t stress enough.
I can see myself calling this book my favorite down the line. I can see myself rereading it many times. I can see it having a significant place on my shelves.
I`ll probably add more of my thoughts to this later, maybe after rereading. Maybe before. Who knows.
I actually don’t think that this book needs defending. I really don’t. With it being what it is, the book itself should be enough.
First of all, I want to say that I do understand why this book can be the most hated for some and most love for others. There’s no in-between. I thought a lot about this while reading and after finishing and I came to the conclusion that it highly depends on the life you have and I mean this in the best way possible. I’m glad the story itself is unreadable for some people because of its sadness and pain; I’m glad it seems unbelievable for some, I'm glad many don't have build up tolerance for this kind of thing. glad it's Impossible in a way that “oh this can’t be. This much pain is too much for one person. This life is unbelievable.” in a way, even though I understand from where these people are coming from, it also pains me to see people calling it a “pain porn.”
I went in with all those expectations and not expectations – “this will be painful,” “take all the pain you can imagine, author pushed everything into one character,” “it makes you care for characters, and then they get ruined” this was what everyone said – and I was curious of what it was. Still, I was sure it would feel forced. I didn’t expect to like the book at all.
And then I read it was absolutely different from what I expected.
And it got me thinking, hard, about life and about my reaction to this story. After reading for a few hours, I sometimes sat there and thought, why am I not having a harsher reaction? Why does it make sense to me? Why, for a moment there, I thought, “I would do the same”? And then I would go, “Aaah, that makes sense. I just know how this feels close enough to be able to navigate myself.”
After thinking and rethinking and (talking to my mom), I realized that it depends on life, your life, and how you look at it. Depending on that, you either will love or hate this book. It either will anger you or make you sad.
It’s not “pain porn” (I really wish people would stop calling it so). if I would want to make a parallel to something more "real life", I would say it's like watching crime documentaries, where you see what, how, when, where the horrible thing happened to a person. they are a "survivor" they are being so brave, giving an interview, helping the investigation and you watch and admire and in an hour you are done. you know this person is alive and living their lives. you don't know what they are feeling now right at this moment tho, do you know if a person who was tortured, held captive, was rescued is still alive? - because you didn't see anything outside of that interview you watched 5 years ago. are they having a good life ? are they cured? did they go to therapy? did it help? you don't know.
this book gives you the window to the part that you don't know. the bad case. the human case.
It’s not a collection of artificially made-up problems pushed into one character – it’s about trauma and response. It’s about the privilege of life where you don’t have to be on edge. It’s about the help that you get, but it doesn’t help.
It’s about forgiveness and how it’s hardest to grant it to yourself.
It’s about the journey and the possibility of it not ending well, no matter how many people love you, no matter how much you yourself want it to work. No matter the effort – pain sometimes just grips you and doesn’t let you go.
And I’m genuinely happy in a naïve, not condescending way that so many people’s lives are in a place where they think this story is mainly made up.
There’s nothing new that I can say about writing. It is incredible and beautiful but always up to preference. The story structure is so well made so meaningful; I can’t stress enough.
I can see myself calling this book my favorite down the line. I can see myself rereading it many times. I can see it having a significant place on my shelves.
I`ll probably add more of my thoughts to this later, maybe after rereading. Maybe before. Who knows.