A Little Life by, Hanya Yanagihara is one of those novels that has developed an aura around it - for many it’s too graphic and traumatic to read, it’s the book that makes people cry (even for non-criers), and for some it’s a holy grail novel. Since I announced that I began reading A Little Life, I’ve received several messages asking if it’s “worth it”, How am I handling the content, Has it made me cry yet?”
This post will just be reviewing the first half of the book, because this is an 800+ page novel and it deserves more than one post. And for the record: Yes, this book is worth it, I’m handling the content well (I’m rarely ever squeamish, so take that with a grain of salt. I’m rarely disturbed enough to turn away from content as I’m rarely caught off guard. I have an extremely high and perhaps abnormal tolerance for this type of content), and no, I have not even come close to shedding one tear (again, I rarely cry, so there’s that…). I may not be the best person to gauge your own response to this novel - I’m pretty… stoic, and clinical when it comes to graphic content. That’s not to say that the content is not difficult, I just don’t have a visceral reaction to it. I see a lot of emotional reviews on this book, and my goal is to be a bit more… pragmatic. There are some really interesting themes that I haven’t seen anyone talk about because they tend to be hyper focused on the trauma and abuse, and I feel that’s actually doing this novel a disservice.
Ok, now that that’s out of the way and you can see how weird I am, let’s get into the “meat and potatoes” of the first half of the book, because I have quite a bit of content that I want to cover. Brace yourselves for an obnoxiously long halfway review.
A Little Life centers on the friendships between four men - JB, Malcolm, Willem and Jude. Their friendship begins in undergrad and the book covers their friendships through to their middle-aged years. The novel orbits specifically around Jude (can I just say that I adore Jude?) and his vague background. As the novel progresses, more unfolds about Jude’s traumatic and abusive childhood. Yanagihara does not just throw it all out there at once and make the reader absorb and process graphic content in one sitting - it’s peeled back slowly and in layers, in a way that’s really rather elegantly constructed. Jude does not reveal what has happened to him, even though his friends are aware that Jude has had a less than ideal childhood. His friends suffer from guilt, for not pressing the issue further.
“But although he was a man who kept his promises, there was a part of him that always wondered why he never raised the issue with Jude…”
The concept of happiness appears quite frequently in this novel. What is happiness? How is it obtained? Are we entitled to happiness? Jude particularly strives for happiness in an effort to make up for and mask what’s happened to him, as well as to ensure that his current and future life is nothing like his childhood.
“There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.”
My favorite theme of the novel, thus far, is the idea of morality and law. I haven’t quite formulated all of my thoughts on this element, it’s still percolating. Jude becomes an attorney and he uses his profession as a way to control his life. He hasn’t received justice in his own life for what’s happened to him, but his command of the court room, his ability to apply the law and achieve justice for others (even for those who may not deserve it), not only challenges him intellectually, but is his way of projecting his own lack of justice, especially since what’s happened to him was highly immoral, unethical, illegal, and downright disgusting. It also gives rise to the question: Just how many grievances go unpunished, leaving the victim left to deal with the damage?
“…what happens when we forsake morality in law for social governance? What is the point at which a country, and its people, should start valuing social control over its sense of morality? Is there such a point?
“It is morals that help us make the laws but morals do not help us apply them.”
Lastly, for this half of the review, we can’t talk about A Little Life without talking about the gorgeous portrayals of friendship. Even though there is a lot of challenging content in this novel, Yanagihara balances this out with illustrating unconditional love. Jude is surrounded by people who care for him deeply and will do anything for him, though he feels he can never repay this kindness, or that he wholly deserves it. These illustrations are in stark contrast to the segments that are heartbreaking, but this dichotomy represents how life is a blend of light and dark.
“The only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are - not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving…”
By the point of this Halfway Review going live, I’m definitely past the halfway point. In the second review, I plan to draw some comparisons between this novel and Lolita, along with whatever else I pick up on.
About 100 pages into A Little Life, I knew this would be one of my top reads of the year. Before I got to the halfway point, I knew this would be one of my top reads of all time. This book is gorgeously written. The style of writing has a cadence to it and once I get into it’s rhythm, it flows and reads quickly, putting me into a lucid-like trance. People have claimed that its traumatic for the sake of being traumatic, but I disagree and find it to be rather realistic (a point I’ll get into in the second review). This is one of those novels that I don’t want to put down.
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