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A Little Life
Winner of The Kirkus Prize, A Man Booker Prize Finalist, and A National Book Award Finalist, A Little Life was named One of the Best Books of the Year. A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.
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thenextgoodbook.com
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
720 pages
What’s it about?
Initially (the first 200 pages or so) I would have said that this book was about four college roommates and how the relationships among them evolve and change over time. Part way through the novel I realized that this story really centered on one main character, Jude, and how the abuse in his childhood forever changed him.
What did I think?
I hear the saying “you are the stories you tell yourself” all the time. This book so portrays that truth. Do those who suffer truly horrific traumas in childhood ever really get past them? Do they have the ability to change the stories they tell themselves? Maybe some do, but this is a novel about the struggle one such person faces. This novel was beautiful, wise and affirming and at the same time it was brutal, dark and at times hard to read.
Should you read it?
I would highly recommend this book, but not to everyone. It is sad and dark but an incredible character driven novel with lots of pearls of wisdom. If you are looking for a quick light read skip this one. If you can handle a novel with a dark side, then this one should not be missed!
Quote-
“I have never been one of those people- I know you aren’t either, who feels that the love one has for a child is somehow a superior love, one more meaningful, more significant, and grander than any other. I didn’t feel that before Jacob, and I didn’t feel that after. But it is a singular love, because it is a love whose foundation is not physical attraction, or pleasure, or intellect, but fear. You have never known fear until you have a child, and maybe that is what tricks us into thinking that it is more magnificent, because the fear is more magnificent. Every day your first thought is not “I love him” but “How is he?” The world overnight rearranges itself into an obstacle course of terrors. I would hold him in my arms and wait to cross the street and would think how absurd it was that my child, that any child, could expect to survive this life.“
Question--
Should Jude be expected to change the story he tells himself? Is it a realistic hope?
If you like this try-
A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
We The Animals by Justin Torres
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
720 pages
What’s it about?
Initially (the first 200 pages or so) I would have said that this book was about four college roommates and how the relationships among them evolve and change over time. Part way through the novel I realized that this story really centered on one main character, Jude, and how the abuse in his childhood forever changed him.
What did I think?
I hear the saying “you are the stories you tell yourself” all the time. This book so portrays that truth. Do those who suffer truly horrific traumas in childhood ever really get past them? Do they have the ability to change the stories they tell themselves? Maybe some do, but this is a novel about the struggle one such person faces. This novel was beautiful, wise and affirming and at the same time it was brutal, dark and at times hard to read.
Should you read it?
I would highly recommend this book, but not to everyone. It is sad and dark but an incredible character driven novel with lots of pearls of wisdom. If you are looking for a quick light read skip this one. If you can handle a novel with a dark side, then this one should not be missed!
Quote-
“I have never been one of those people- I know you aren’t either, who feels that the love one has for a child is somehow a superior love, one more meaningful, more significant, and grander than any other. I didn’t feel that before Jacob, and I didn’t feel that after. But it is a singular love, because it is a love whose foundation is not physical attraction, or pleasure, or intellect, but fear. You have never known fear until you have a child, and maybe that is what tricks us into thinking that it is more magnificent, because the fear is more magnificent. Every day your first thought is not “I love him” but “How is he?” The world overnight rearranges itself into an obstacle course of terrors. I would hold him in my arms and wait to cross the street and would think how absurd it was that my child, that any child, could expect to survive this life.“
Question--
Should Jude be expected to change the story he tells himself? Is it a realistic hope?
If you like this try-
A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
We The Animals by Justin Torres
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Good read but tough topics with little warning (cutting and anorexia can be trigger topics) and repeated graphic descriptions. Could have used some editing --a little goes a long way and insulting to the reader to reuse the emotion after character has long been established. Loved the look into male relationships and tremendous power of love. Had lots to talk about in book club so if you are up for long, dark read but debate of some serious topics--this selection is good.
This is one of the most beautiful but also one of the most harrowing books I've ever read. So many times I had to walk away from it because of the inexplicable horrors that were visited upon an innocent child, but I was drawn right back to it because I had to know what happened to him, how he learned to survive.
The story starts out seeming like a "coming of age" novel about a group of friends who all graduated from the same New England college and move to NYC to make their way in their respective careers. But it becomes clear that it's the "little life" of Jude that we're focusing on as we're given, little by little, the details of his horrific childhood, and it's a wonder he survived, let alone achieved such success in college, in his career, and with these very important, very special friendships. But even with all that he's accomplished, with everything he's gained, nothing can erase his nightmare past and the emotional and physical damage that was done to him. He becomes more and more broken as time goes by, even with all the people in his life who have come to love and care for him.
A sad, but at the same time hopeful, look at humanity.
The story starts out seeming like a "coming of age" novel about a group of friends who all graduated from the same New England college and move to NYC to make their way in their respective careers. But it becomes clear that it's the "little life" of Jude that we're focusing on as we're given, little by little, the details of his horrific childhood, and it's a wonder he survived, let alone achieved such success in college, in his career, and with these very important, very special friendships. But even with all that he's accomplished, with everything he's gained, nothing can erase his nightmare past and the emotional and physical damage that was done to him. He becomes more and more broken as time goes by, even with all the people in his life who have come to love and care for him.
A sad, but at the same time hopeful, look at humanity.
I read many reviews of this book before start reading it, but never would have prepared me for what actually went down.
Many people said in the reviews I read that the book destroyed their lives, but no review was made of what it actually is about. After finishing, I’ve thought of this book at least once a week, that story, just breaks you away no other book could.
I often wonder what’s wrong with the author
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