A Little Life follows four college friends as they navigate careers, love, friendship and life and death. At the center of the four friends is Jude, a mysterious young man who suffers from severe leg and back pain and whose body is covered in scars. Jude shares little about his own life and his three friends -- Malcom, Wilhem, & JB -- know better than to ask him about his childhood. The book alternates perspectives throughout, although Jude remains central. As the novel progresses, the story of Jude's past slowly unfolds to reveal a history of abuse and unspeakable trauma.
I LOVED this book. At 700+ pages it was an emotionally challenging read that takes hold of you from page one and puts you through the wringer. I cried. A LOT. And, I'm not much of a cryer. Yanagihara makes you fall in love with the characters then makes you suffer as they make some horrible decisions, try to reconcile their past, and struggle to find love and self-worth. Jude is portrayed with an emotional sensitivity that I found surprising. Yanagihara gives readers a real sense of how trauma can impact both the victim and his social circle. As a psychologist, I often find myself irritated by portrayals of mental illness in books, but here I found myself amazed at how well the author portrayed a difficult personality profile whose frustrating actions do not take away from the love you feel for him.
It can be a difficult read since there is a lot of disturbing content including multiple forms of abuse. At times, I felt like the author was going a little too far in piling on the abuse history. So many horrific things happened to one of the characters that it bordered on sensationalist and took away from some of the realism of the book. The content isn't particularly graphic since much of it is left to the imagination, but it is nevertheless heart-wrenching. But while the history of abuse is prominent, the book isn't about abuse. It's about relationships and some of them are so beautiful that their warmth makes you cry from the happy moments.
The writing is truly fantastic. Even mundane events are made to shine and descriptions very subtly shift based on which character perspective we are reading. For example, take this passage from one of JB's chapter:
The other aspect of those weekday-evening trips he loved was the light itself, how it filled the train like something living as the cars rattled across the bridge, how it washed the weariness from his seat mates' faces and revealed them as they were when they first came to the country, when they were young and America seemed conquerable. He'd watch that kind light suffuse the car like syrup, watch it smudge furrows from foreheads, slick gray hears into gold, gentle the aggressive shine from cheap fabrics into something lustrous and fine. And then the sun would drift, the car rattling uncaringly away from it, and the world would return to its normal sad shapes and colors, the people to their normal sad state, a shift as cruel and abrupt as if it had been made by a sorcerer's wand.
JB, is an artist, thus his observations are seen through the eyes of an artist. Other characters focus on different aspects that are relevant to their own important identities. Picking up on these subtleties makes this book that much more special.
Other favorite quotes:
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 itself 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. It seemed as improbable as the survival of one of those late-spring butterflies - you know, those little white ones- I sometimes saw wobbling through the air, always just millimeters away from smacking itself against a windshield.
Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip of miseries, and long bouts of boredom, and occasional triumphs. It was feeling honored by the privilege of getting to be present for another person’s most dismal moments, and knowing that you could be dismal around him in return.
Will you like this book? Here are my pros and cons for the book:
Pros: stellar writing, rich character development, diverse characters (in terms of racial background and sexual orientation), emotionally evocative. Sensitive portrayal of the long term impacts of trauma. I also liked that the book showed a different angle of abuse - how someone so seemingly successful and well-loved can be hiding great pain underneath the surface.
Cons: at times bordering on sensationalist. Yanigahara goes too far in her piling on of abuse after abuse. Yes, there are individuals who experience multiple traumas but it gets to a point where it's a little much. I didn't think that was needed to make her point about the long-term impacts of childhood trauma on the lives of individuals. Feels emotionally manipulative at several times.
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Reviews with images
Jude… I’ll always think about you. Forever and always.
This is one of the best books I have ever read and will always be a special place in my heart. I finished this 800 page book in 2 weeks and took a week break before starting “the happy years” chapter. I will always think about Jude, Willem, Malcolm and JB. The author outlines these characters personalities so well. I have never felt so deeply about these characters in a story before this one. Without any spoilers I will forewarn you. This book is incredible but it is immensely emotionally tolling. There are scenes that are incredibly graphic but they’re needed to bring the characters whole story as one. This book is so incredibly written. I have thought about it every day for the last 2 weeks and I think I’ll always remember snips of it. You will fall in love with these 4 boys and their side characters. I got recommended this book on TikTok and saw people crying over it. I said, “what all the hype about and why is everyone crying over it?” I bought it and the first 300 pages were slower…. I thought to myself, “Am I crazy or why haven’t I cried yet?” Pages 400-600 were rough but I still maintained my composure. I stopped right before, “the happy years” because I needed a mental break to regain the strength to finish. Pages 600-800 I sobbed all the way through. I would recommend this book to my fellow mentally ill girlies but I understand it’s also not going to be everyone cup of tea. Just know you will love and be broken within this book. I love you Jude, you mean so much to me. Willem is everything you’d ever want in a man and more.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2015
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2019
Upon completing this novel, I was fatigued, drained, and spent of my emotions because I have never equally hated and admired a book so much in my literary life. On two occasions while reading, I took a shot of tequila to get through particular sections. Sections where when the tequila did not help, I put the book down because the book's content read like being hit by a Mack truck at full speed. Nothing in this novel is subtle, as a matter of fact, I equate reading it to a jackhammer puncturing hard-baked cement and you the reader is the cement. The storytelling is piercing, with plangent themes that gutted my insides, and it is so visceral that it ostensibly paints Yanagihara to be a sadistic fiend for unleashing a literary work such as this. She's of course not, she's simply a good writer who knows how to bring a heartbreaking story to life.
Yes, 'A Little Life' is an agonizing read, but one that was masterfully written, offering all manner of literary rewards. Employing use of a dense, particularized writing style, Yanagihara's prose is architectural, cerebral, and drawn out at a pace that is like molasses rolling up a sand dusted hill. From page one, I found the four protagonists to be engaging, but forebodingly so, where I immediately knew that there will be a lot to unpack in the subsequent pages ahead. Though the novel's setting is contemporary, Yanagihara tells it in an odd but effective flashback mixed with present day style where the context of time is always abstract. Specific dates or years are never used, instead we get descriptors such as "nine years ago," "on his fifth birthday," "four years after..." This approach bothered me initially, because it made some of the flashback scenes less textural. But Yanagihara is such a good writer, she made the technique work, as it became tolerable as I read on. Again, nothing in this novel is subtle or plain, but despite the elaborately detailed descriptions, which I admired, the novel is readable. Although, I think some readers may find it to be plodding.
For me, I think one of Yanagihara's strength as a writer is her ability to flesh out characters as if they were filigree, branching them out far and wide, but characters that have a centered, yet deeply flawed souls. As well written as each of the characterizations are here, I admit that I dislike every one of them. The four protagonists - Jude, Willem, Jean-Baptist, and Malcolm, plus two major secondary ones, Andy, and Harold - all made my emotions seesaw from vexation to sympathy, but mostly vexation. Jude, the center of the novel's story, is especially maddening. He is a self imposed martyr, at times grating, and is in constant need of attention, attention that is wanted or not. Yet, I couldn't help but be heartbroken for him due to his disquieting childhood and unenviable lot in life.
Another source of frustration was that 'A Little Life' has in my opinion, an uncomfortable air of incestuous camaraderie between the six protagonists, a bothersome co-dependency that drove me up the wall. Everyone in Jude's life - Willem, Jean-Baptist, Malcolm, Andy, and Harold, individually and collectively coddle him to such an extant that it borders on criminal. I was bothered that each of these characters allowed their hubris and selfishness to take precedence over the necessary tough love that Jude needed. The enabling and coddling became reductive, and peeved me so badly that I yelled out at my book several times. Still, despite my irritation at the imbecilic actions of the characters, I couldn't help but regress into pity and gut-wrenching grief for each of their lives. Eventually, my dislike of the characters became irrelevant, as I don't think characters have to be likable in order to be effective. At any given time, I was mad at each of them, but in their frustrating behavior, they made me think long and hard about human frailty.
Despite my frustrations, and even at 720 densely packed pages, 'A Little Life' is a worthy read. Make no mistake, as it did me, this is a novel that will peel your insides and likely wreck you. There were moments where I could only read certain chapters in short spurts, with breaks between paragraphs because the content is so unsettling. Nevertheless, I read it all, because even though this is a fictional story, I can't help but think that it is the life that some unfortunate souls have lived, and or are living right now.
I highly recommend 'A Little Life', but again be warned, the content is visceral, EXCRUCIATING, and unrelenting. The depravity and evil that Yanagihara has showcased in these pages is unreal, and is unlike any I've ever read. As you progress though the novel, prepare yourself before reading pages 323-340, 392-403, 417-423. The entire book is not easy to get through, but these pages are especially ungodly. I don't care who you are or how strong you are, I think this book is one that will wreck most. I give it 4.75 stars out of 5 for the writing, the themes, and the fleshed out characterizations, even though the novel as a whole is positively diabolical.
4.75-Stars: Excruciating and Diabolical, but Masterfully Written
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2019
I finished Hanya Yanagihara's emotionally draining, 'A Little Life', over three months ago and in the time since, I felt I needed to recover from her roller coaster of a novel. Imagine though a roller coaster that is on fire, but has classical music playing on its back row as it dips and ascends into screaming terror and melancholic euphoria.Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2019
Upon completing this novel, I was fatigued, drained, and spent of my emotions because I have never equally hated and admired a book so much in my literary life. On two occasions while reading, I took a shot of tequila to get through particular sections. Sections where when the tequila did not help, I put the book down because the book's content read like being hit by a Mack truck at full speed. Nothing in this novel is subtle, as a matter of fact, I equate reading it to a jackhammer puncturing hard-baked cement and you the reader is the cement. The storytelling is piercing, with plangent themes that gutted my insides, and it is so visceral that it ostensibly paints Yanagihara to be a sadistic fiend for unleashing a literary work such as this. She's of course not, she's simply a good writer who knows how to bring a heartbreaking story to life.
Yes, 'A Little Life' is an agonizing read, but one that was masterfully written, offering all manner of literary rewards. Employing use of a dense, particularized writing style, Yanagihara's prose is architectural, cerebral, and drawn out at a pace that is like molasses rolling up a sand dusted hill. From page one, I found the four protagonists to be engaging, but forebodingly so, where I immediately knew that there will be a lot to unpack in the subsequent pages ahead. Though the novel's setting is contemporary, Yanagihara tells it in an odd but effective flashback mixed with present day style where the context of time is always abstract. Specific dates or years are never used, instead we get descriptors such as "nine years ago," "on his fifth birthday," "four years after..." This approach bothered me initially, because it made some of the flashback scenes less textural. But Yanagihara is such a good writer, she made the technique work, as it became tolerable as I read on. Again, nothing in this novel is subtle or plain, but despite the elaborately detailed descriptions, which I admired, the novel is readable. Although, I think some readers may find it to be plodding.
For me, I think one of Yanagihara's strength as a writer is her ability to flesh out characters as if they were filigree, branching them out far and wide, but characters that have a centered, yet deeply flawed souls. As well written as each of the characterizations are here, I admit that I dislike every one of them. The four protagonists - Jude, Willem, Jean-Baptist, and Malcolm, plus two major secondary ones, Andy, and Harold - all made my emotions seesaw from vexation to sympathy, but mostly vexation. Jude, the center of the novel's story, is especially maddening. He is a self imposed martyr, at times grating, and is in constant need of attention, attention that is wanted or not. Yet, I couldn't help but be heartbroken for him due to his disquieting childhood and unenviable lot in life.
Another source of frustration was that 'A Little Life' has in my opinion, an uncomfortable air of incestuous camaraderie between the six protagonists, a bothersome co-dependency that drove me up the wall. Everyone in Jude's life - Willem, Jean-Baptist, Malcolm, Andy, and Harold, individually and collectively coddle him to such an extant that it borders on criminal. I was bothered that each of these characters allowed their hubris and selfishness to take precedence over the necessary tough love that Jude needed. The enabling and coddling became reductive, and peeved me so badly that I yelled out at my book several times. Still, despite my irritation at the imbecilic actions of the characters, I couldn't help but regress into pity and gut-wrenching grief for each of their lives. Eventually, my dislike of the characters became irrelevant, as I don't think characters have to be likable in order to be effective. At any given time, I was mad at each of them, but in their frustrating behavior, they made me think long and hard about human frailty.
Despite my frustrations, and even at 720 densely packed pages, 'A Little Life' is a worthy read. Make no mistake, as it did me, this is a novel that will peel your insides and likely wreck you. There were moments where I could only read certain chapters in short spurts, with breaks between paragraphs because the content is so unsettling. Nevertheless, I read it all, because even though this is a fictional story, I can't help but think that it is the life that some unfortunate souls have lived, and or are living right now.
I highly recommend 'A Little Life', but again be warned, the content is visceral, EXCRUCIATING, and unrelenting. The depravity and evil that Yanagihara has showcased in these pages is unreal, and is unlike any I've ever read. As you progress though the novel, prepare yourself before reading pages 323-340, 392-403, 417-423. The entire book is not easy to get through, but these pages are especially ungodly. I don't care who you are or how strong you are, I think this book is one that will wreck most. I give it 4.75 stars out of 5 for the writing, the themes, and the fleshed out characterizations, even though the novel as a whole is positively diabolical.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
John Nalleweg
Beautifully written but a painful read
Reviewed in Canada on March 22, 2024Nidia
Hermoso
Reviewed in Mexico on February 14, 2024
Nidia
Reviewed in Mexico on February 14, 2024
Images in this review
Thiago Sardenberg
Uma vida gigante
Reviewed in Brazil on September 30, 2022
Thiago Sardenberg
Reviewed in Brazil on September 30, 2022
É sabido que esse livro lida minuciosamente com as repercussões duradouras de um número catastrófico de abusos físicos e psicológicos sofridos pelo personagem principal durante anos, por diferentes pessoas (quase que implorando ao leitor que suspenda a descrença na plausibilidade desses eventos tão seguidos). Vejo que muitos comentários se atêm, e não sem razão, a esse aspecto, que cria raízes invisíveis pelo texto e está presente mesmo quando não é discutido.
Entretanto, entendo que o trunfo de Uma Vida Pequena reside em outro lugar, para além das angústias e traumas da vida. É por meio das relações tão particulares (complexas e incrivelmente sinceras) estabelecidas entre um grupo de amigos tentando construir suas vidas e relacionamentos afetivos por seus próprios termos, independente das muitas expectativas sociais às quais todos nós somos constantemente submetidos (Por que estás solteiro? Por que não se casam? Por que não têm filhos? Por que essa carreira, e não essa outra? etc) que o livro encontra sua âncora, sua humanidade, em meio às muitas tormentas que cria.
Sem dúvidas, eles habitarão por muito tempo minha mente - assim como levarei comigo muitas das reflexões que o livro provoca.
Images in this review
MiaMinardi
Good book for an adult who is interested in the socialogical (stigmatized) mental health topics
Reviewed in Sweden on April 22, 2024