A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

And there’s a real ethical issue for me in the way the author dangles the prospect of the grotesque details of Jude’s childhood abuse in front of the reader for most of the novel, like a kind of McGuffin for which we keep reading.

As a study of grief, the breakdown of normal life, and the abuse and neglect of children, 'The Discomfort of Evening' is a better written book (and IMO much more disturbing than A Little Life). We are shown, not told about, the disintegration of a family. I'm not sure I would recommend it to people as there is some disturbing graphic content ...

I read it a while ago. I thought it was a bit too unrelenting and overwritten, to the extent it became unrealistic. Hasn't stayed with me at all.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

It could perhaps be read as a punishment?!

That said, I think we're extremely naïve and privileged to find a life of repetitive advise implausible. It is unfortunately completely plausible.

Less plausible: the endless descriptions of food and decor as if they were synonymous with beauty and healing.

The JP character (I think) was very strong. She should do more of that.

Instead I think she got deeper into abuse literature-no idea how she functions.

I wondered why his "disease" was never named. I assumed it was HIV (possibly hep C) but it was always sort of glossed over, which was strange because nothing else was!
Anyway, I really liked it and have recommended it to others with the warning that it is traumatic to read. But at the same time, I will never read it again.
I agree with PP that the characters have stayed with me for years just like Mariam from Thousand Splendid Suns. I sometimes wonder what happened to them after the end of the book.

Lone voice: I loved this book, now one of my al time favourites. I first read it several years ago, cried my heart out. I occasionally go back to certain sections (not the abuse, don't need to read that more than once. Ever.)

Yes, it's implausible for one individual to suffer so much cruelty. You hope. But the suffering was balanced by the incredible love in the book, amongst the friends and Jude's parents, his father's first marriage. As PP says, it's rare to see such depth portrayed about male friendships. And I was touched by the parent-child relationships too.

It was a sad ending on top of everything else, but I thought Yanagihara portrayed grief so accurately throughout the book, so beautifully, that it felt true that there could have been no other ending for Jude.

I then went on to read her first book The People in the Trees. Wished I hadn't, absolute drivel, rubbish and weird storyline, writing was no where near as accomplished as A Little Life. I'm looking forward to reading her next one though!

I hated the trauma/misery porn side of it especially as an abuse survivor BUT actually didn't hate the book. Liked that it spanned over such a long time and the characters were very realistic other than Jude who was a caricature and very one note.

God, I hated this book. I felt compelled to finish it then hated myself for it.

I also found Shuggie Bain relentlessly miserable, actually.

It was just so unbelievable that any person could encounter so much unadulterated abuse in his early life and so much unadulterated adoration later. Neither rang anywhere near true.

The book could have had more impact (because it would be believable) if Jude had just experienced some trauma, but his life was like watching Wiley Coyote being run over, blown up, falling off a cliff - the abandonment, the monks, the youth workers, the doctor, the boyfriend. I found myself eye-rolling by the end.

There was a heaping of misery on the character and it did cross a line for me in terms of taste as well as necessity for us to know Jude as the reader. I think some elements could have been more elegantly alluded too. At times it felt like a shopping list of abuse and torment.

However, I was taken by the book. Enjoy is not the right word. Engrossed?

A much better book with a greater balance of tribulation and harrow is The Gold Finch by Donna Tartt

I find it deeply saddening that a character like Jude would apparently find judgement and disdain in RL, according to this thread.

He wasn't fun. Are friendships meant to be fun to be with having? He was clearly persecuted and his friends saw that and tried to help. Beautiful book in that respect.

It's awful. We read it for my book club and we all hated it. It is now used as a measure of awfulness against which all other books are rated. The worst.

As a writer, this book destroyed my creativity.There was something very odd in the balance of some incredible wordsmithery with the ever spiralling storylines. I could never move past the feeling this left me with and caused me to question the entire process of writing and writer's motives.

The author has captured the impact of trauma, that's what resonates

It's true. A great book might be lacking and perhaps only do one thing really really well, but do it so well that our understanding is deepened and we can look to it as a testimonty - to a universal experience, or an experience known to a few that ought to be mourned by everyone. This is an important book, as heartless as it is to the reader. It wasn't meant to be fun.

Toplowlight

The mind boggles. I'm sorry you had that experience.

There's some fair criticism in this thread about characterisation, likeability and the rooting of the story in time and place. However much of the criticism is based on the relentless misery of the story, but that is the story. Jude has, on the surface, made a huge success of his life; career, friends, family, wealth - he has it all- and yet his past is inescapable. It's not an easy read, many if the details are unbelievable but at it's heart is a truth that many people live with; that the past haunts the present and has the power to render it meaningless. The author has captured the impact of trauma, that's what resonates and makes it a great book IMO.

It is so unbelievably bad I could not finish it.

I found the repetition of misery and apology unbearable

Relentless is the right word for it. I felt sorry for Jude, but i didn't like him at all. I thought he was utterly selfish and self absorbed. People loved him so much, and went to endless trouble for him, and it was never enough. It drove me mad that he would allow his injuries to get completely out of hand, then drag himself to his poor doctor friend to sort them out. Maddening.

I also found Jude’s long list of accomplishments and the way everyone loved him equally implausible

Also this.

It is a really, really bad book.

I read this immediately post partum - bloody stupid choice. It really, deeply distressed me.