A little life

Well written but way too long. I stopped caring about Jude and, as others have mentioned, I found his life story entirely unbelievable. He seemed to be extremely selfish. I did finish the book but it honestly didn't stay with me in any way

Finished!!

I agree, I don't think it was particularly gratuitous. There's some books where the descriptions of abuse are verging on the pornographic and I thought this was quite muted compared to some.

I'm not a cryer at books but most admit spoiler

The description of Jude's life and routine after Willem's death - the shirts, full body cushion, going through the letters... I found that really moving.

It's not without its faults... The main one being Andy's failure to do anything meaningful other than give him bollockings and have lunch with him....and to a lesser degree, the same goes for the other characters.

But a really good book nonetheless.

it is just too gratutious and unrelentlingly described. It is a novel and not a RL memoir and in the end fails to advance the plot

The abuse descriptions help us understand why Jude hates having sex with William and why he's full of self-loathing, which culminates, of course, with the tragic end. I didn't think the descriptions were as explicit as they could have been.

I'm clearly reading the wrong type of Harry Potter fanfic!

Oh, that kind of thing may not even exist any more -- my only involvement with fanfic was when I was vaguely planning to write something about it for an academic paper, and it was back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and everything was on Livejournal.

But I do remember perhaps because it was by a Big Name Fan who subsequently reinvented herself as a YA novelist a particularly grim one about Draco Malfoy being imprisoned in Azkaban awaiting the Dementor's Kiss, with Harry his only visitor, and despite Harry trying to clear his name, he eventually gets the Kiss, has his soul sucked out, and spends the rest of the fic as a walking corpse living in Harry's flat.

I'm reading it at the minute. Im about two thirds through and it's holding me quite well.

The one thing that irritates me is that no one seems able to say anything without using the other person's name.

It makes the dialogue quite clunky and almost winnie-the-pooh like.

'I'm sorry, piglet'.
'That's OK, pooh'.
'piglet, do you want to go to Morocco?'
'That would be wonderful Pooh.'

I'm clearly reading the wrong type of Harry Potter fanfic!

I loved A Little Life too - and cried my eyes out.

It is interesting how people can have such polarised reactions to the same book. I didn't believe in Jude (or any of them) as a character at all.

Two far better depictions of adults living with the consequences of an abusive childhood are My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

It's all subjective, of course, but to me, the depths Elizabeth Strout and Gail Honeyman write about in terms of their protaganist's don't come anywhere near as close to what Hanya Yanagihara achieved with her characterisation of Jude.

If it is a parable southeastdweller what do you think the lesson is?

I think the lesson is a very depressing one. That sometimes life is hopeless and futile.

It can happen in RL. For example, Broken by Shy Keenan and Stuart: A life Backwards bear that out (Staurt is abused and asks to be put in care and then is horrendously abused in the care home). However, I agree with Bookworm it is just too gratutious and unrelentlingly described. It is a novel and not a RL memoir and in the end fails to advance the plot.

'That in real life' I meant to say.

I didn't think the abuse Jude receives was unbelievable - I've read in newspapers that in to people have gone through even worse experiences than he did.

Hurt comfort! That's it. I knew there was a term for it!

My Name is Lucy Barton is really good, I agree. (And I love Jude the Obscure, though my husband claims to have laughed at Little Father's Time's suicide note when he read it as a student.)

It reminded me of that type of fan fiction written by teenage girls where one character gets hurt or tortured so the other character can comfort him.

Oh, God, that's exactly what it's like! It's like 'hurt/comfort' slash where Harry Potter keeps being sexually enslaved by Death Eaters, gang raped by drugged House Elves and subjected to appalling horrors in Snape's dungeon, in order for Draco Malfoy to emerge as a good guy and rescue him so they can have snuggly, healing consensual sex about ten seconds later, but hey who's being realistic?

Only without the snuggly, healing part, obv.

To the poster who said it's not torture porn because these things happen in real life: yes they do, although i still think the misery visited on Jude is unbelievable. It's not that these things don't happen; it's how the subject matter is treated. I couldn't bear the relentless, graphic description overlaid with sentimentality.

Two far better depictions of adults living with the consequences of an abusive childhood are My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

I loathed it. Creepy torture porn dressed up as literature, with added treacly sentimentality and an odd attitude to gay men and their relationships. It reminded me of that type of fan fiction written by teenage girls where one character gets hurt or tortured so the other character can comfort him. I'm always baffled it gets so much praise.

I agree Peckwater She says she believes we are all alone and that your friends cannot help save you. I think the last third of the book turned into misery "porn" it was relentless and the plot did not advance - it became a chore to finish whilst I had devoured the first third (with the variety of stories about the friends lives).

I like dark books - my favourite writers are Gissing, Zola, Hamilton and I once got in trouble at school for saying that Jude the Obscure was my favourite book, so I can take misery but this was a grind.

I thought this comment (from the Guardian article) was controversial (does the writer think abuse is worse for boys and easier for girls?)

I am not that interested in abuse really. But what I am interested in as a writer is the long-term effect it has, particularly in men. I think women grow up almost prepared for it in a way. Boys still don’t and it happens to a great many of them. It takes away their sense of masculinity. And of course they are not equipped or encouraged to talk about it. It causes terrible psychic harm.

One of the worst books I've read. Started off ok and just got worse.

And yes the impossibility of it and repetition of I'm sorry and the cutting. gneh

I've picked it up and put it down a couple of times in bookshops, cherry. The plot involves a self-justifying abuser, a Nobel-prize winning scientist who is also a convicted paedophile, and his time on an anthropological expedition to a remote island in the 1950s.

Worm, that's a strange interview, isn't it? She appears to think she has written an entirely different novel to the one I read. I picked it up in the first place, because I liked the idea of an edgy, NY-set novel about an aging friendship group where no one moved to the suburbs, got married and had children, but it stopped being that very quickly, when two of the four friends are totally sidelined and one eventually killed off, and turns into a relentless parade of the horrors an author can load one character with. We never get to see whether friendship can save Jude, because the author has lost interest in the friends.

I loved it. Can anyone recommend something similar? Has anyone read her other book?

If it is a parable southeastdweller what do you think the lesson is?

Are you referring to this:
She says she thinks the book is a bit of a parable of adulthood, which begins as something full of social possibility and narrows to something increasingly introspective. “In the end you are really left on your own,” she says. “If you look at the friends who come in and out of Jude’s life and how they are not able to really save him – that part is, I think, an accurate reflection of my adult life, and no doubt of a lot of people’s.”

I am not sure that is the meaning of a parble - I thought it was a story to illustrate a lesson "don't hide your light under a bushel" etc. Is the lesson just a statement "we are all alone"?

from the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/26/hanya-yanagihara-i-wanted-everything-turned-up-a-little-too-high-interview-a-little-life

Parable, not fable

But what does the 'credibility-straining' fact of Jude being NY's top litigator AND Willem being a famous filmstar AND Malcolm a famous architect AND JB a famous artist add to the novel?

Nothing in terms of appeal, but they don't detract, either. To me these 'conveniences' go hand in hand with the parable aspect.

But what does the 'credibility-straining' fact of Jude being NY's top litigator AND Willem being a famous filmstar AND Malcolm a famous architect AND JB a famous artist add to the novel? It's like one of those early chicklit novels about the lives and loves of four friends, and one is a top magazine editor (blonde), one a top fashion photographer (brunette), one a top advertising executive (redhead) and one a top journalist (mixed race).

It's so emotionally draining ! Great book but I won't be reading it again