A Little Life: Picador Collection

Every year I look at the Booker Prize shortlist and buy a couple of books from it, and frequently I read the winning book as well. A Little Life was on the shortlist in 2015 and has been sitting on my shelf for two years, until my break in August when I decided to actually read it, and it was well worth the wait. This is one of those books that will surely go down as a modern classic, it is so brilliant. The plot follows four friends who meet at college through life's up and downs and personal tragedies; JB an artists, Malcolm an architect, Willem an actor and Jude a lawyer. Jude is the glue to this group, and is the main focus of the narrative. There are a few chapters narrated in the first person by Willem and Harold, who is Jude's law professor, mentor and the nearest thing to a father her has. The writing of this book is sublime in its language and Hanya Yanagihara is able to write plot lines, that in some parts are harrowing, in a beautiful and lyrical way. I actually found her prose hypnotic, I was drawn into this book and couldn't tear my eyes away from the page. There are lots of difficult issues discussed in this book, rape, abuse, suicide, drug abuse, and many more but still I was entranced by this book. Hanaya Yanagihara shows a great understanding, intelligence and empathy towards these subjects. Her characterisation is again wonderful, with all her characters so true to life that at times I felt like I was reading a biography/autobiography rather than a piece of fiction. In a way A Little Life is a dark Fairytale with good, evil and romance at its centre. Jude is the main character in A Little Life, and all the other character's stories are all linked to his. In all my years of reading I don't think I have ever come across a character as damaged psychologically and physically as Jude. When we first meet him in the book we know he has physical problems and throughout the book his past is gradually revealed to the reader. Jude has experienced the best and worst of humanity through his life, and seen love in many guises from destructive love to the love of friendship that is all encompassing. Even though his story is hard to read in places, I found him a compelling character who I was really down to and wanted him to find happiness. Willem is the person whom he is closest to, a friendship that is unconditional and intense in places; it is Willem that is there for Jude at some of his lowest moments. Malcolm is different in that he comes from a wealthy family, very different from Jude who has no family and Willem whose parents are dead. His relationship with JB can be tense around the subject of race; Malcolm has a white mother and black father where as JB's parents are both black. JB is the typical troubled artist, very talented but also open to addiction. Through his story there is the time old discussion of what is art, figurative painting versus the modern art of the instillation, photography and performance art. I was really drawn into this as it something I studied with my degree and always find it a fascinating subject. To say A Little Life is a masterpiece, a Magnus opus, feels like an understatement. I have read the winner of the Booker Prize from 2015, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and have to say I think A Little Life is so much better. There are very few novels, except from the classics, that I keep to read again but this book will be added to that shelf to join other books that I found through the Booker Prize; Possession by A.S Byatt, Amsterdam by Ian MacEwan and The Goldfinch and The Secret History by Donna Tartt being on that shelf. This is a mesmerising, intelligent, all encompassing read and one that will stay with me forever. This is a monumental novel in my opinion and one I will always recommend as well as those mentioned above. A Little Life is fiction at its absolute best; the perfect novel.

Beautifully written, compulsive reading (I read this book very quickly, at one point I had a straight 10 hour session). It's a really tough read at points, so I can't imagine what it must have taken out of Ms Yanagihara to write. I think this book will stay with me, but I'm not sure I'll ever want to read it again; it was so gutwrenchingly heartbreaking at points that I had to put it down, try not to cry, remember "it's not real, it's not happening to me and my friends" (even though it felt like, feels like, it was exactly that). Whilst I was reading this, I happened to see a review online that said: "It's not overstating it to say that this book has changed my pre-conceived ideas of what friendship is" - or something like that. I couldn't have put it better.

So, I loved this book. I'll say that up front. I loved reading it as much as I hated reading it. But it has a lot of problems. Firstly, the bits that I loved the most rotated around the potential for kindness and love that all human beings possess. The parts with Harold and Julia, and how they love Jude unconditionally. The flashbacks to Willem's earlier years with his brother. How sweet Jude's friends are towards him (generally speaking) and their ways of supporting him as a disabled character. I loved following the characters' stories along such a lengthy period of time. And I didn't mind the length of the book AT ALL; in fact I wished it were a bit longer. However. HOWEVER. I have one huge issue with this book. I am not saying that everything that happened in Jude's past is 'unlikely'. Of course there are people who suffer terrible abuses like those that he has been through. But I thought it was unnecessary. I couldn't help feel that Jude could have been through 'less' (I say 'less' but I realise any single one of incidents he suffered is appalling and you can't compare them) - and still been legitimately traumatised. This is a fiction book after all. I felt that it sent out the message that you had to have been through the levels of horror that Jude has endured in order to feel the way he does, which is simply not true. You can be depressed, suicidal or self harm, without having been through anything like the sort of things that Jude suffered. I just felt as if the author tried to come up with the worst series of things she could imagine, and it was just entirely unnecessary. He could just be depressed. That's fully legitimate. Also a lot of the tension of the book then becomes about wanting to 'find out' what happened to Jude, purely out of our own horrible curiosity. Also, despite Jude supposedly being this kick-ass lawyer, there seems to be very little justice for Jude's abusers. Again I think this sends out a very negative message to survivors of real-life abuse... That even this millionaire successful male lawyer just ends up suffering to the very end and never really 'gets over it'. Not that you'd expect anybody to really get over abuse like that... But there is no vindication for Jude. I actually think this book would have been a lot better if it didn't specify Jude's history at all. We don't need to know the gruesome details, and 90% of the other characters don't know about it either. Jude doesn't WANT them to know, so why should we know either? However despite that, I did enjoy the characters, and it moved me to tears in many places - most of the scenes with Harold had me sobbing! There are a lot of beautiful scenes, and some great prose. I've read criticism about her writing style, and my girlfriend (an editor) was driven insane by the way it was written. But I didn't mind that, and in places I loved it. I would recommend it... but probably not to anybody who has struggled themselves with abuse or mental health issues. It's not an easy read, and should come with a trigger warning on the front cover.

I haven’t read the entire book yet but so far so good. It was well packaged and the book has 0 damages

There are so many things I loved about this book, countered by so many things I hated. Yet, the beauty I saw in my head in the “happy years” and the emotions I felt, terrible and tragic, overcame the things I disliked about it. Leaving me thinking about this book nearly every single hour, every single day for the past month. Coincidentally, falling in love with it. Whilst horribly missing and feeling a sense of loss towards Willem and Jude. Though I thought some characters were 1 dimensional, I believe their two amazing characters had so much depth and personality that they shown against the others, making it worth while. I think some minor descriptions got repetitive and sometimes boring, which made it harder to get through the 814 pages, but in the end it was worth it. The final chapter was absolutely amazing, I have never read something that made me this emotional, all whilst tying up the text perfectly. I was able to recognize the many different meanings behind the title of the book, which was a heartbreaking experience for some of them, but I always love figuring out the titles significance to the text itself. Which this book does very well on. Now some reviews hate on this book for its continuous graphic content and repetitive unlikeness of Jude’s life. However I never felt this way. Sure it was hard to get through many sections about Jude’s past. But I don’t think they are used just to make us feel terrible. The created a story one in which we saw Jude carrying such weight for the 53 years of his life. One which that affected everything he did and everyone we loved. It did this in a way I haven’t seen a book do. And with the unlikeness of the events all happening in his life. Sure maybe every horrible thing that happened to him seemed unbelievable because how many traumatic things can happen to one guy? But how I saw it was, these things DO happen to people. R*pe, p*dophilia, s*x trafficking, kidnapping, car accidents, abusive relationships, loss, depression; and all of the other things Jude experienced. It’s not like someone who faces trauma in their life, only has one event happen and the rest of their lives runs smoothly. I also saw how Jude could be representing so many different people and different life experiences. For this reason this didn’t make it unbelievable to me in any way. The only way it is if you stay for narrowed and head on with the book, rather then thinking about bigger context; the issues in todays world, what people experience, and how he was a representation, representing all sorts of people in one character. It’s if I saw Jude as almost a metaphor. People also disagreed on the other extremity’s that took place, but on the other spectrum; success. All of the characters have an arch in their careers and all become super successful in their particular field. Even Jude, although he has had set back after set back. I think if the author had given Jude a mediocre life, or not have found his friends, and Harold and Julia, his adoptive parents, his career and life, he would have not made it as long as he did. Because mind me again, these things do happen to people, and are very hard to overcome. So Yanahigara, of course gave him this beautiful life, and all of his friends one. Too. But let’s not say it was without struggle. Jude struggles everyday with trauma and sadness, topped with self hatred, Jb struggled with a drug addiction, Willem didn’t get gig after gig and wondered about his competence, Malcolm didn’t make it for a while, under the pressure of his parents. Like real life there were setbacks for all of them, before they made it big. And what is unrealistic about making it big, when one you are passionate about what you love and two you went to a good university? I think it’s unfair to these people’s characters to say their lives became unrealistic either on the traumatic aspect or the success. Because success does in-fact happen for people too. Sure both may have seem over the top, but I also never felt this way. It was if the book was written to have two extremes on the spectrum, and show that even a beautiful life that is so big and grand full of everything anyone could want, received and deserved, not given, cannot heal such trauma from one’s life, making only but a little life.

First things first, I think this is the best written book I've ever read (maybe that doesn't say a lot because I mostly read YA romances or thrillers - but still, the writting on this book is amazing and anyone can attest to that). Second, oh where to begin... I can see why people either hate or love this book. In life, you encounter people with different approaches to life - some may choose to look at the positive side of things, others get a little stuck on the negatives - with this book is no different. Yes, there's a sequence of tragedies and inimaginable horrors and you can get stuck on that, but, like myself, you can extract SO MANY great things from this book, I chose to look at it as story about love (and not necessarily romantic love). The author managed to put into words thoughts that I had throughout my life about relationship, friendship, adulthood, parenthood, death and, as a lawyer, even the law. All the characters are well built, even if you don't go too deep in their past, there's background enough to understand why they are the way they are, why they struggle with what they struggle. I went in prepared to cry, but by the last page I was sobbing so hard I felt like I was going to throw up. Since then I carry the characters close to my heart and think about them every single day. I'm grateful for the opportunity to know their story. Jude, you will stick with me forever.

The spine was damaged when it arrived

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