Do you have a book or two that you've seen everywhere and you keep meaning to pick it up, but something in the back of your mind keeps stopping you? That's how I felt about A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara for years. But I finally took the plunge and picked up this intimidating tome, and am ready to share my thoughts with you all.
The Gist
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara chronicles decades in the life of four friends: Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm, as they pursue their passions and navigate the treacherous path through adulthood. In particular the story focuses on Jude, whose hidden past has lasting effects on his relationships with the people he encounters.
The Take
Oh boy, this was a hard book to get through. I knew going in that A Little Life was a sad book, based on the myriad YouTube thumbnails and Instagram Reels proclaiming “This is the saddest book ever written!” And yet I decided to meet the challenge before me, to navigate the dark and depressing tale of four friends who cling to one another as they grow up and become distinct individuals whose lives are forever intertwined. What I learned fairly quickly is that it is not even primarily a story about friendship, but rather spends the bulk of the novel focusing on Jude’s tragic life and the systematic abuse he faced in the first sixteen years of his life. This was a disappointing revelation, but I plowed through in order to see for myself why people were so drawn or so repulsed by the story.
While I try to remain an optimistic person overall, I do not shy away from sad stories or dark themes. I find it brings a semblance of balance to my life to experience the hardship of characters put into situations so different from my own. I even find relief in the occasional crying jag from an emotional book. I felt up to the task of diving into this world, of exploring the complicated lives of these characters, but the tide ended up overtaking me. I was overwhelmed by the descriptions of molestation that saturated the middle section of the book, punctuated with the onslaught of depictions of self harm. It became difficult to focus on the other aspects of the story, knowing that more of these scenes were coming.
At one point in the story, which I will leave vague so as not to spoil a major plot event, I reached critical mass on the amount of tragedy I could handle. It was a feeling akin to the quarantine fatigue we were all experiencing in 2021, a numbness that overtook me as a self preservation response to the nonstop horrors of the novel. The remainder of the text passed in a hazy daze of absurdity until the final passages came to a close. If it weren’t for my hubris, I would have put the story down halfway through.
Now that I have said my piece about the difficult aspects of the novel, let me introduce you to some of the enjoyable parts of the story, because there were some. In particular I enjoyed the supporting characters in Jude’s life. Willem and Malcom were his steadfast supporters throughout the novel, always finding time to check in on Jude even as their respective careers took off. JB was a harsh, difficult character, but his story had a bite to it that was missing from the rest of the plot. Harold and Julia were the warm, comforting center of the story, becoming surrogate parents to Jude and opening their home to the four friends whenever needed.
I also want to give Yanagihara credit in her writing ability. I appreciate the sentence-level writing she was able to craft, which remained consistent over the 700 page story. She has an undeniable skill in creating poetic prose, and I recommend checking out some of the quotes from the novel even if you aren’t planning on reading the whole story. She also has the confidence to explore such dark themes in this novel, which not many authors can do to this extent. While I did not enjoy that part of the story, I can applaud her abilities nonetheless.
There are many people in my life that I would warn away from this story, and a few that I would recommend caution to. It's hard for me to entirely reject the novel because it is well written, but I do have to question the point of writing such a long novel that details such horrors without any apparent catharsis or deeper meaning.
Rating: 5/10
Memorable Moments
The adoption scene is particularly touching, and a rare bright spot in the narrative.
Harold and Julia are wonderful characters. Their capacity for love is such an inspiration.
“Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely? Wasn’t this house, this beauty, this comfort, this life a miracle?” This is what I wanted to see more of.
Try It If…
You are an emotional masochist. (With love, no judgment! Live your life.)
You appreciate an author challenging themselves to push the limits of a book.
You want to see for yourself why this is such a divisive story.
Avoid It If…
You have sensitivity to abuse of any kind (physical, emotional, sexual, self-inflicted, psychological, etc.).
700+ pages of sadness with few points of levity does not appeal to you.
You want a story that focuses on each individual within a friend group equally.
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