![]() Post-sexual, post-racial, post-past.” Even Willem, his most beloved, kind-hearted friend, finds that their relationship seems to require “not letting himself ask the questions he knew he ought to, because he was afraid of the answers.” At one point, JB dubs him the Postman: "e never see him with anyone, we don’t know what race he is, we don’t know anything about him. He doesn’t talk about his childhood, and he is constantly exhausted by “the thousands of little deflections and smudgings of truth, of fact, that necessitated his every interaction with the world and its inhabitants.” With endless vigilance, he hides his many secrets from his closest friends. He is overwhelmed by “the terrifying largeness, the impossibility, of the world, of the relentlessness of its minutes, its hours, its days.” His memories hound him, and he is in chronic physical pain because of a crippling injury of mysterious origin. We meet him at a moment when a less exacting writer might have left him to a vague, sunny destiny.īut life for Jude is a daily struggle. He and college friends JB, Malcolm and Willem have moved to New York to realize their ambitions he has a stable existence and people who love him. When the novel begins, Jude has already survived his formative traumas. Instead, Yanagihara records the ups and downs of Jude’s life with painterly, painstaking patience, denying easy resolutions at every turn. I wanted so badly for Jude to remain frozen in a moment of happiness that part of me wished the book were ending with that note of hope, the light reached at the end of the tunnel - I wished, in other words, for a gentler, inferior book. I became nauseous with the knowledge that this precarious joy would have to collapse in the following 500 pages. Francis, who has already been subjected to an incredible amount of suffering. I became so invested in the characters and their lives that I almost felt unqualified to review this book objectively.įor example, less than 200 pages in, something wonderful happens to the main character, Jude St. I will always be forever grateful that I gave it a chance to prove me wrong.I’ve read a lot of emotionally taxing books in my time, but “A Little Life,” Hanya Yanagihara’s follow-up to 2013’s brilliant, harrowing “The People in the Trees,” is the only one I’ve read as an adult that’s left me sobbing. I thought I would hate it with every ounce of my soul. I actually said once that I would never read this book. They cradle you gently even when you know more hurt is coming. And they shine and hold you close and make you FEEL. I know people really only talk about the sad parts, but there are happy moments too. You will laugh and cry and smile so bright your cheeks hurt. Nothing has ever come close to the complete emotional attachment I felt while reading. It has not left me from the moment I started it. But I personally have never been so taken by a book in my entire life. PLEASE look up the warnings and make that decision yourself. I'm not saying this is for everyone because it definitely isn't. ![]() There has not been a moment since finishing months ago that I haven't thought of them and wished to hold them in my hands for the first time again. Desperate to drown in the love they hold for Jude. You will be desperate to remain with them and hear their lives. But you will also love the characters so intensely that they feel like a part of yourself. It is sad and heartbreaking and IT WILL HURT YOU. And unfortunately, nothing has come anywhere close to that feeling since. Simply because I was afraid reading anything else would forever seem dull in comparison to the way A Little Life spoke to me. A Little Life is without question the most consuming, life altering book I have ever read in my entire life and I spent weeks worried it had ruined me ever liking another book again. The story is a once in a lifetime book experience you may never find again. If you think you can handle the content discussed, I hope you give this a try.
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