A Little Life: The Million-Copy Bestseller
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‘I’m not exaggerating when I say this novel challenged everything I thought I knew about love and friendship. It’s one of those books that stays with you forever.’ – Dua Lipa
The million-copy bestseller, Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, by the author of To Paradise and The People in the Trees, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.
Winner of Fiction of the Year at the British Book Awards
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize
Finalist for the US National Book Award for Fiction
When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life forever.
‘Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind.’ – The Times
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Additional information
| Publisher | Picador, Main Market edition (10 Mar. 2017) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 736 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 9781447294832 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1447294832 |
| Reading age | 18 years and up |
| Dimensions | 13.1 x 4.6 x 19.7 cm |
by DPR
A Little life
The subject is a group of four young men who first met at college, and who remained friends through their lives. As the story develops we learn that one of them was grossly abused during his childhood and the damage this has inflicted on him is massive both physically and emotionally. No amount of worldly success, therapeutic intervention and love and affection in his adult life is enough to relieve his sufferings. This part of the plot was the most convincing and vividly and movingly told.
The four main protagonists, who meet when they are still in their teens come from very different backgrounds and pursue very different careers. However, they have in common that they are all high achievers, and become rich and famous.
I found the story riveting, moving and ultimately tragic, and over the several days during which I read it I was very preoccupied with it. When I finished it I felt bereft, as if I had lost a group of friends and a world I had grown used to.
So why have I only given it three stars?
Because in spite of its ability to absorb me, for me it has many flaws, as a novel. I was aware of this from the start, but I hoped the importance of the flaws would diminish as I read on but on the contrary they proliferated.
Firstly I found the plot implausible in many ways. These four men became very close friends in college, not unusual, but what is unusual is that they remained extremely close for the rest of their lives. Given that each of their chosen professions has its own distinctive culture, it is surprising that none of the four developed close relationships within their own milieu or elsewhere and neither did their links with the other three in their former student group weaken or diminish or change over time as their circumstances grew more and more different.
The fact that they were all so successful in their wildly different professional lives seemed somewhat improbable too. The most improbable of all was the one who achieved early acclaim as an artist when he painted images of the other three when they were in college, but then seemed to spend his life repeating this, and acquiring something of a cult status as an artist for doing so. Very hard to credit, in the art world of the 21st century that someone would become so successful for repeatedly painting pictures of his old college pals.
Each of the other three was similarly successful, one as a lawyer, one as an architect, and one as an actor who became recognised all over the world. And as they were so successful, after an initial period of relative poverty they soon all became very rich- they had at least two houses each, one in the posh bits of New York City and one in the country. The lawyer has a huge loft apartment with its own personal swimming pool, plus an award winning house in the country (designed by his college mate architect of course) with 17 acres and a lake and another swimming pool, this time lined with Italian grey slate. And it is mentioned in passing that later on he bought himself an apartment in London, in Marylebone, which he thought of as a quiet and unpretentious district. He bought it to save himself and his partner from the inconvenience of having to stay in a hotel when they were in London. So as sad as the circumstances of their history are, the protagonists were not much troubled by the usual mundane struggles that beset most of the world’s citizens and one can’t help but think at times that although they suffered they did so in some comfort and luxury.
Ordinary people, who do humble practical jobs, are mentioned, but they are described only by their functions and names like Mrs Zhou the housekeeper, Mr Ahmed the chauffeur and some unnamed gardeners at the country house who keep the place spic and span and we are told, pick blossoms to put in vases in the house weekly, whether or not anyone is staying there. Nurses called Patrizia and Yasmin, come and go. But we never hear anything about any of them except that they do what the main character wants and then go away again. It could be argued that they were not important to the story, but it does have the effect of placing the action into a rarified and pampered world which is unfamiliar to most of us.
A major problem for me is that there are no women characters who are anything more than appendages to the men. There is one woman, Julia, whose role is actually quite crucial to the plot, but I did not feel I knew her in the way that I knew her husband Harold, for example. If I had not known that the writer was a woman I would never have guessed it. Her previous novel, The People in the Trees, was similarly rather weak on female characters. I have no objection to reading a book about a group of men, it is just that I think it is implausible that four men could go from the age of eighteen or so for the rest of their lives without women being involved in their lives in any significant way that impinged upon the unfolding of the story.
My final criticism is that it is just too long. There is a lot of repetition, and many trivial events are described in too much detail for example the preparation of meals and other activities of daily living. Not just once but over and over again. The suffering of the main protagonist is indeed tragic, but in the end the detailed repeat descriptions detract from the emotional effect rather than add to it. Less would have been more.
Anyone reading to the end of this (also probably too long) review should not be put off reading the book in spite of my perceptions of its flaws. The author knows how to write to draw her readers in and to take them for a very unusual journey and memorable journey. I will remember this novel long after I have forgotten many more technically perfect ones. I shall buy her next novel as soon as it appears and look forward to reading it.
by Claire Bogira
The most harrowing, heart breaking but most wonderful book I have ever read. What on earth can I read to follow this.
by HAS
I mourned the last page of this book. It was hard to pick up anything else for a long time afterwards. Beautiful. Poetic. Incredible read.
by Amazon Customer
This book was recommended to me by a colleague and I delayed reading it due to the subject matter. I work with children and young people who have experienced abuse and usually choose books that are much lighter subjects. I was sceptical about the book and had some preconceived ideas, especially after the hype of the theater production but once I started it I struggled to put it down (and it is long with very small writing – tip, get it for the Kindle). Yes it’s heavy and very upsetting in parts but the main theme for me is the beautiful, loyalty and friendship between the key characters and their enduring love and affection for Jude. Some of the gentler moments where different people such as Harold, Julia, Andy and of course Willem, care for him, were so special, so poignant, that they made me cry. Towards the end, as the more of Jude’s past is revealed, and how difficult this if for him to overcome becomes evident, I found I had to take breaks. It is hard to know how to describe a book like this but it did not disappoint me and I hope to pick it up and read it again one day.
by Amazon Customer
It was a good read
by Kindle Customer
I struggled to complete this book, for a number of reasons. I also struggled to give it a star rating, again for a number of reasons. I purchased it because I had read so much about it, and read about the stage production, which had received mixed reviews. I felt that I needed to read it, although I was fully prepared for it to be raw and upsetting, and braced myself to do it.
Firstly, I think that it is an extremely well written book. The writer has an excellent command of language, it is extremely well researched with regards to the medical issues, and it explores humanity in great depth. There are clear, thought provoking messages here, but my main criticism is that it goes on, and on, and on. If there was a clear, evident reason for this, then I could accept it, but I couldn’t see it. I think the last section of the book was surplus to the story, I didn’t see the point to it. One chapter could have finished it. I didn’t see the point of a further 40 or so pages. It became very self indulgent.
The story telling, throughout, was a little confusing, with regards to who was narrating, in which time span, present or past, which meant that you spent the first few pages of the chapter working out just where we were in the story, and through whose eyes were we seeing it. Which brings me to the story itself. Harrowing, dreadful, inhuman, but never detailed graphically. I never had to close the book or stop reading from horror. It was related in an almost dispassionate style, matter of factly, this is what happened, this is why he is the way he is. It is purely believable because we know these things happen, all too often, by many different types of men, but I found this unrelenting. Every man he met was a cruel, abusing deviant. Were there no kind hearted people anywhere that could help? Are all truck drivers child abusers? The writer did acknowledge that there were some kind hearted abusers, but nonetheless they all used him horribly. It is a terribly cynical view of the world.
We are introduced to numerous characters and, essentially, the book is about four of them and their travels through life, from rags to riches, but it’s really all about Jude. How they all fit in and around Jude. How they all deal with his issues. How he holds the power over all of them.
The more I read, the more unbelievable I began to find things. How did this wreck of a man hold down such a demanding job and be such a success? The man’s half dead, and rotting from the inside, but he still manages to get into work and do an eighteen hour shift. Even with no legs, and not eaten for three weeks, he’s still stunning everybody in the court room.
I am sorry to say that by the end section I didn’t really like Jude. I just wanted it all to end. Having given so much time to this book, I couldn’t just give up. I had to finish it, but couldn’t read more than about twenty to thirty pages before putting it down. It became a chore. Something that had to be finished, but I was getting no enjoyment or anything positive from it. When I finished it, I just felt relief. I am sorry to say that because there were positives in there, just so far back I simply cannot remember them now.
It is a book with a message. It explores humanity, good and bad. Everybody in the first fifteen years of Jude’s life were evil, everybody after that were paragons of virtue, goodness personified, except for the odd evil character who had his comeuppance. Karma at work, which was pointed out to us. It is what I would describe as a ‘worthy’ book, but a bit of a slog to get through.
by Kindle Customer
Never have I been attached to a fictional character like Jude before. I had to read the last 150 pages twice to actually believe what was going on was true. This book is dark but so beautifully written and it’s been a month since I’ve read it and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of it.