![]() I feel that it was one of the most challenging books for me to even try to read and wrap my head around that I want to remember. Not necessarily finishing it since I know that some readers will choose not to for completely understandable readings. I don’t see myself rereading the story for a long time, maybe not again, but I feel it is an accomplishment in a way. Harold and Andy were also fantastic male father figures for Jude and my heart ached for them as they poured so much love into Jude. ![]() Willem was by far my favorite character, from beginning to end. Seeing how they change, how they stay the same and everything in between. I love how the story covers decades of their relationships with each other. And that the whole book will be spent uncovering his past and understanding his present. I feel the groundwork is laid pretty early that Jude’s life has not been easy and there are so many layers. Whether you’re new to A Little Life or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015, Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel is a powerful exploration of the limits of human endurance. This is Jude’s story told through his perspective and all his loved ones. Reading guide: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. For sure research the content warnings before diving into this complex read.Īt the beginning I was pretty confused about who each of the guys were in the friend group and wondered if we’d be getting equal time with each of them. A Little Life has been on my TBR for many years but the sheer size and copious warnings about how destroyed readers were. Where do I even begin with this emotional and devastating story? I cried during The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot but this is a whole other level. ![]() 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. 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. In A Little Life, it's life's evanescent blessings that maybe, but only maybe, can save you.A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara A Little Life Synopsis:Ī 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. With her sensitivity to everything from the emotional nuance to the play of light inside a subway car, Yanagihara is superb at capturing the radiant moments of beauty, warmth and kindness that help redeem the bad stuff. Jude's suffering finds its equipoise in the decency and compassion of those who love him the book is a wrenching portrait of the enduring grace of friendship. While A Little Life is shot through with pain, it's far from being all dark. Jude's guardedness makes him the heightened embodiment of the secret private self we all have, with our own calming rituals, mental hideaways and escape hatches. Here, Jude's ghastly history puts him in a mental universe that his friends - and readers - must work to enter. Yanagihara is fascinated by how we understand minds very different from our own. Even as the book pointedly challenges the neat, happy arc of popular redemption stories - "People don't change," Jude decides - it calls on our imaginative sympathy. As the book begins, they've moved to New York to make their fortune, and over the next 700 pages - yes, 700 - we watch them rise, lose their bearings, fall in love, slide into squabbles and wrestle with life's inevitable tragedies.īesides, Jude's condition is Yanagihara's way of exploring larger issues. There's the timorous would-be architect, Malcolm, born of a wealthy, mixed-race family and the handsome, lame Jude, a brilliant attorney addicted to cutting himself. There's the kindhearted actor, Willem, and the self-centered artist, JB, of Haitian stock. The book follows three decades in the life of four friends from a posh college. As I was reading, I literally dreamed about it every night. This new book is long, page-turny, deeply moving, sometimes excessive, but always packed with the weight of a genuine experience. We just love tales about healing.īut how far should we trust them? That's one of the many questions raised by A Little Life, a new novel by Hanya Yanagihara, whose acclaimed debut, The People in the Trees, came from seemingly nowhere 18 months ago. How?Īmerica is hooked on stories of redemption and rebirth, be it Cheryl Strayed rediscovering herself by hiking the Pacific Trail or the late David Carr pulling himself out of the crack-house and into The New York Times. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title A Little Life Author Hanya Yanagihara
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