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A review by ashleigheva
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
5.0
i'm gonna have to come back to this for an update because right now i have been left absolutely emotionally battered i needa sec
[ edit: okay here i am now, it is the next day and i finally have it in me to type this out ]
oh boy, this book was comforting in all the wrong ways
so much of how jude felt felt so so familiar, although his case was always taken to a more extreme extent. but nonetheless, it felt so comforting to see that someone else (albeit fictional) shares similar thoughts and feelings on certain things as i do. but simultaneously it was so heart wrenching to spectate it from a third person point of view.
one aspect i particularly enjoyed was how clearly and well developed jude and willem's relationship was. often times i find it really hard to care and be fully invested in characters' relationships through their ups and downs because the author simply given me enough reasons to care. but this is not the case here. from the very start of the book, i found jude and willem's dynamic so incredibly endearing, that i decided to start marking down all of these little moments with annotations and post its. ( i read and re read the climbing down the window scene in particular because of how much i loved it haha, so you bet i cried even harder when it was brought up again at the very end of the book) the idea that they might be a couple did cross my mind, but after seeing willem through his experiences with women, i wound up dismissing this idea. but oh boy am i glad i was proven wrong. realistically, i'm probably never going to meet someone as understanding as willem but man can i fantasise. i like how well balanced it was. willem showed an unconditional love for jude, but it was also noted very clearly that he did indeed have his fair share of dissatisfactions. that definitely made his character as well as the entire relationship feel a lot more realistic.
adding to the idea of making me care about their relationship, i think a really good job was done in terms of showing how the two are truly better together than apart. i've become very much desensitised to the phrase "i miss you" because of how thoughtlessly it is thrown around, but in this one particular scene where jude is waiting for willem to get back home for a trip and he talks about how much he misses him, i actually cried because of how authentic his desperation felt. i feel like if i tried to describe the establishment of their relationship i'd just be going in circles, so i'll leave it at this and say that the relationship itself i believe does all the explanation and so much more.
something else i really liked was how we were taken back into moments of the past amidst the telling of the present. normally i find it a hinderance (albeit sometimes necessary to build tension etc) to the main plot but here, i felt like rather than obstructing the main plot, it assisted it, and helped to really solidify it. in particular, how jude's childhood was told very gradually throughout the first 3/4 of the book rather than leading us up to one pivotal moment where all this information is dumped on us. not only would that have been way too much information to process emotionally, but i also feel that the story would have suffered, so i'm glad that this wasn't done. by revealing bits here and there, we were able to better understand jude in the present, but also, it served as a constant reminder of how much mystery jude is shrouded in to not only us, but all the other characters within the story.
a key player in making this story a success, i believe is how the cyclical nature of jude's struggles are portrayed. i've seen criticism towards the length of this book, saying that a lot of repetition could have been shaved off, but i personally feel that it is precisely the arguably excessive repetition that makes jude's predicament so much easier to understand. the monotony of the absurdity he battles with can be clearly seen, making his sightly nihilistic behaviours more palatable. the loop after loop of similar events occurring in slightly different contexts becomes dreadful to the reader, but more so to jude himself. i think that through this, jude's utter lack of hope and the way he dies feels more justifiable and well solidified.
jude's mentality at times became infectious. i found myself doubting the other characters in the story because i was worried for him and felt that his fears had become justified. in particular, for quite a while, i felt really worried that harold had bad intentions. even after the adoption i still couldn't shake the feeling that something more sinister was waiting to erupt. on days that i read this book, i definitely felt a certain type of way. i just couldn't view the world around me the same way anymore. but with the way it ended at the very end of dear comrade, i finally felt this huge sense of relief. for the first time in the entire book i felt that jude harboured some form of hope for his own future. as much as i love his relationship with willem, jude here, was finally actually using his own autonomy to make a decision for himself, and given all the events that led up to this moment, this scene was so incredibly potent. and with this, i finally felt a little more hopeful about my life as well.
however, something i did feel could have been worked on was the relationship between the main four characters. rather than being shown why and how they became a bona fide little clique, it was more so a title that was asserted upon us, that we had to somewhat baselessly accept for pretty much the entire book. i think at the very start of the book, choosing to dedicate a section to each of the individual four to help us get to know them was a really good decision. however, after that, it definitely felt like jb and malcolm almost completely fell off the face of the earth. jb only ever re appeared to stir up trouble and ultimately apologise through creating paintings, and malcolm only re appeared to design new houses for them. bruh. it's really sad how when willem, malcolm and sophie died in the car crash , i found it really hard to feel sorrow for malcolm. we simply know too little about him. the only aspect of his personality that was more thoroughly developed was his love for architecture. i think one aspect that could've been further added onto would be his dilemmas about having children and marriage. that being said, i do understand that if all the characters were more well developed, the book would be incredibly lengthy, and other aspects of the story might have taken a blow instead. but i think that at the very least, the first point about how the dynamic between the four sometimes felt contrived definitely should have been worked on, considering the book emphasises the them of friendship quite heavily.
to conclude, i am so glad that i had the chance to read this book and be introduced to this world and these characters. it's easily one of my favourite books because of how personal it felt. thank you :-)
[ edit: okay here i am now, it is the next day and i finally have it in me to type this out ]
oh boy, this book was comforting in all the wrong ways
so much of how jude felt felt so so familiar, although his case was always taken to a more extreme extent. but nonetheless, it felt so comforting to see that someone else (albeit fictional) shares similar thoughts and feelings on certain things as i do. but simultaneously it was so heart wrenching to spectate it from a third person point of view.
one aspect i particularly enjoyed was how clearly and well developed jude and willem's relationship was. often times i find it really hard to care and be fully invested in characters' relationships through their ups and downs because the author simply given me enough reasons to care. but this is not the case here. from the very start of the book, i found jude and willem's dynamic so incredibly endearing, that i decided to start marking down all of these little moments with annotations and post its. ( i read and re read the climbing down the window scene in particular because of how much i loved it haha, so you bet i cried even harder when it was brought up again at the very end of the book) the idea that they might be a couple did cross my mind, but after seeing willem through his experiences with women, i wound up dismissing this idea. but oh boy am i glad i was proven wrong. realistically, i'm probably never going to meet someone as understanding as willem but man can i fantasise. i like how well balanced it was. willem showed an unconditional love for jude, but it was also noted very clearly that he did indeed have his fair share of dissatisfactions. that definitely made his character as well as the entire relationship feel a lot more realistic.
adding to the idea of making me care about their relationship, i think a really good job was done in terms of showing how the two are truly better together than apart. i've become very much desensitised to the phrase "i miss you" because of how thoughtlessly it is thrown around, but in this one particular scene where jude is waiting for willem to get back home for a trip and he talks about how much he misses him, i actually cried because of how authentic his desperation felt. i feel like if i tried to describe the establishment of their relationship i'd just be going in circles, so i'll leave it at this and say that the relationship itself i believe does all the explanation and so much more.
something else i really liked was how we were taken back into moments of the past amidst the telling of the present. normally i find it a hinderance (albeit sometimes necessary to build tension etc) to the main plot but here, i felt like rather than obstructing the main plot, it assisted it, and helped to really solidify it. in particular, how jude's childhood was told very gradually throughout the first 3/4 of the book rather than leading us up to one pivotal moment where all this information is dumped on us. not only would that have been way too much information to process emotionally, but i also feel that the story would have suffered, so i'm glad that this wasn't done. by revealing bits here and there, we were able to better understand jude in the present, but also, it served as a constant reminder of how much mystery jude is shrouded in to not only us, but all the other characters within the story.
a key player in making this story a success, i believe is how the cyclical nature of jude's struggles are portrayed. i've seen criticism towards the length of this book, saying that a lot of repetition could have been shaved off, but i personally feel that it is precisely the arguably excessive repetition that makes jude's predicament so much easier to understand. the monotony of the absurdity he battles with can be clearly seen, making his sightly nihilistic behaviours more palatable. the loop after loop of similar events occurring in slightly different contexts becomes dreadful to the reader, but more so to jude himself. i think that through this, jude's utter lack of hope and the way he dies feels more justifiable and well solidified.
jude's mentality at times became infectious. i found myself doubting the other characters in the story because i was worried for him and felt that his fears had become justified. in particular, for quite a while, i felt really worried that harold had bad intentions. even after the adoption i still couldn't shake the feeling that something more sinister was waiting to erupt. on days that i read this book, i definitely felt a certain type of way. i just couldn't view the world around me the same way anymore. but with the way it ended at the very end of dear comrade, i finally felt this huge sense of relief. for the first time in the entire book i felt that jude harboured some form of hope for his own future. as much as i love his relationship with willem, jude here, was finally actually using his own autonomy to make a decision for himself, and given all the events that led up to this moment, this scene was so incredibly potent. and with this, i finally felt a little more hopeful about my life as well.
however, something i did feel could have been worked on was the relationship between the main four characters. rather than being shown why and how they became a bona fide little clique, it was more so a title that was asserted upon us, that we had to somewhat baselessly accept for pretty much the entire book. i think at the very start of the book, choosing to dedicate a section to each of the individual four to help us get to know them was a really good decision. however, after that, it definitely felt like jb and malcolm almost completely fell off the face of the earth. jb only ever re appeared to stir up trouble and ultimately apologise through creating paintings, and malcolm only re appeared to design new houses for them. bruh. it's really sad how when willem, malcolm and sophie died in the car crash , i found it really hard to feel sorrow for malcolm. we simply know too little about him. the only aspect of his personality that was more thoroughly developed was his love for architecture. i think one aspect that could've been further added onto would be his dilemmas about having children and marriage. that being said, i do understand that if all the characters were more well developed, the book would be incredibly lengthy, and other aspects of the story might have taken a blow instead. but i think that at the very least, the first point about how the dynamic between the four sometimes felt contrived definitely should have been worked on, considering the book emphasises the them of friendship quite heavily.
to conclude, i am so glad that i had the chance to read this book and be introduced to this world and these characters. it's easily one of my favourite books because of how personal it felt. thank you :-)