A Little Life
I don't know if you remember the profile I did on my friend Tarek (you can find it here if you'd like), but he mentionned that he wanted to read the book A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I was intrigued by the premise of the book and so I bought it, genuinely not expecting much. It's almost 800 pages long and spans approximately 40 years without giving you a clear indication of what year it is at the start of each chapter (you kind of figure it out slowly throughout the chapter).
It tells the story of a group of friends- JB, Malcom, Willem and the main antagonist, Jude- trying to make it in New York City in their respective fields after graduating college, all whilst navigating the waters of love, friendship and scarring pasts. I'm not going to lie, I got 300 pages into the book and had to stop because of how absolutely devastating it was (Oh, if only I knew it was just the tip of the iceberg) but then Tarek convinced me to continue and for this, I will forever be grateful to him. Although the story gets increasingly dark as you move forward, you also get unbelievably attached to the characters- their pasts, their broken souls, their insurmountable love for one another- and you become so enthralled in their lives that you can't imagine stopping the book for a minute.
I finished the book a month ago and I still can't stop thinking about it. Although it was 800 pages long, I wanted- I needed- more. I wanted to live in their universe for a bit longer, to get to be a part of their lives for just one more year. And although the book gives you the closure you anticipated, although Yanagihara can give you no more to satisfy your appetite, you still feel at a loss for words when you finish the book. You still have so many questions to ask, although you know they've already been answered. I'm not being dramatic when I say that this book has opened my eyes to the world, its perils, its moments of light and moments of darkness. Yanagihara has constructed real, flawed, imperfect characters. There are moments when you hate them with everything inside of you, moments when you love them so much that it genuinely hurts, that you want to reach in and hold them, tell them that it will be okay, even if you've learned that that is not a guarantee. I don't think I've ever been this affected by fictional characters before. Although I was not ready for it, this book made me grow up ten years. I've become aware of the fragility of life, the rawness of deep, true, powerful human bonds. It's made me see, me, a hopeless romantic, that love- even in its most powerful and grand and amazing state- cannot heal all wounds.
I can go on for pages and pages, but the gist of it is that I will never forget this book and these characters and that I can not recommend it enough. If you want to have your heart ripped out then put back in ten times in a row, you know what to do!
It tells the story of a group of friends- JB, Malcom, Willem and the main antagonist, Jude- trying to make it in New York City in their respective fields after graduating college, all whilst navigating the waters of love, friendship and scarring pasts. I'm not going to lie, I got 300 pages into the book and had to stop because of how absolutely devastating it was (Oh, if only I knew it was just the tip of the iceberg) but then Tarek convinced me to continue and for this, I will forever be grateful to him. Although the story gets increasingly dark as you move forward, you also get unbelievably attached to the characters- their pasts, their broken souls, their insurmountable love for one another- and you become so enthralled in their lives that you can't imagine stopping the book for a minute.
I finished the book a month ago and I still can't stop thinking about it. Although it was 800 pages long, I wanted- I needed- more. I wanted to live in their universe for a bit longer, to get to be a part of their lives for just one more year. And although the book gives you the closure you anticipated, although Yanagihara can give you no more to satisfy your appetite, you still feel at a loss for words when you finish the book. You still have so many questions to ask, although you know they've already been answered. I'm not being dramatic when I say that this book has opened my eyes to the world, its perils, its moments of light and moments of darkness. Yanagihara has constructed real, flawed, imperfect characters. There are moments when you hate them with everything inside of you, moments when you love them so much that it genuinely hurts, that you want to reach in and hold them, tell them that it will be okay, even if you've learned that that is not a guarantee. I don't think I've ever been this affected by fictional characters before. Although I was not ready for it, this book made me grow up ten years. I've become aware of the fragility of life, the rawness of deep, true, powerful human bonds. It's made me see, me, a hopeless romantic, that love- even in its most powerful and grand and amazing state- cannot heal all wounds.
I can go on for pages and pages, but the gist of it is that I will never forget this book and these characters and that I can not recommend it enough. If you want to have your heart ripped out then put back in ten times in a row, you know what to do!
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