“A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is an emotional and harrowing novel that follows four college friends—Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm—as they navigate life in New York City. At the heart of the story is Jude, a brilliant but deeply traumatized man with a mysterious and painful past. As the years pass, the novel delves into themes of friendship, love, suffering, and the long shadows of abuse. With its unflinching portrayal of trauma and resilience, A Little Life is a devastating and profoundly moving exploration of what it means to survive.“
As always, let’s start with the characters first and foremost. I really enjoyed two of these characters: Harold, who is Jude’s somewhat mentor, and Willem, who is one of the four friends. I would absolutely have devoured this book if it had only been about Willem; I loved his story. One of the things I think this book teaches is that empathy needs to be directed towards everyone, not just a select group of people. To make the world a better place, you have to show compassion and empathy to everybody around you. That was something great about this book. Even if I didn’t necessarily love all of these characters, I could see a little bit of myself in their relatability.
Now, what did I not like about the characters? The side characters were very interchangeable, and I didn’t think they had a significant role in the story. I’m thinking of characters like Richard, Kit, Lucian, and so many more that I can’t even remember the names of because they were so underdeveloped. I don’t understand the purpose of having them in the story. Additionally, two of the college friends, JB and Malcolm, just kind of got pushed to the side. It almost seemed pointless to have these long chapters dedicated to them at the start of the book if we’re not going to follow their whole story in the same manner.
My biggest gripe, though, was that I was not immersed in the shoes of these characters. We have Jude, who is presented as being so brilliant, but I don’t understand why they felt this way. I guess it was the mystery surrounding him. Every bad thing that could happen to a person happens to Jude, which typically would make me feel despair, evoke emotions, or frustrate me to the point of anger with the book. In this case, I felt neither of those because I was never immersed in the story. Sure, I can admit that what he went through was disgusting, terrible, and just plain awful, and I did feel uncomfortable reading those scenes—if you don’t, there’s probably something wrong with you—but I never felt like I was truly put into the shoes of these characters, even if this book does a great job at depicting the dynamics between people.
Regarding the atmosphere, the vibe and tone are very pretentious. I think if you are a fan of ‘The Secret History’ or maybe ‘The Goldfinch’, then you’ll like the tone of ‘A Little Life’. But let’s talk about where and when the book is actually set. This book feels very New York City; it gets that vibe across perfectly. Now, on the back of the book, it says this is a 21st-century story. I don’t know when in the 21st century this book takes place. It feels rather timeless, as it does mention emails and phones, but we don’t have any pop culture references. Since this is in New York City, we never get, for instance, a 9/11 reference, so I’m not sure when this is entirely taking place, and that’s something we’re going to discuss a little more when we get into the writing. I don’t understand emphasizing the 21st-century setting in the synopsis if the book isn’t going to utilize that aspect.
As I mentioned earlier, the writing did lack clarity for me, particularly in terms of when the story is taking place. Mainly, as we moved from chapter to chapter, it would take me a moment to adjust and figure out whose POV we were reading from and why that particular story was being told in the format it was. However, when you step back and look at some of the passages in this book, it is beautifully written. I wouldn’t classify it as lyrical prose or anything like that; it’s more descriptive. I compared this to the works of Donna Tartt, as it has a very similar writing style—very beautiful writing—but it did get confusing at times.
The plot was good. This is definitely a character-driven story, but I loved the themes of relationships and how they shape us as individuals. This book really made me realize that we are the way we are because of the people around us. Our relationships with those people—not just romantic relationships, but also platonic and familial relationships—shape us into the humans we become. It’s honestly mind-blowing to think about. This book did such a great job at portraying all the different kinds of relationships we experience in our lives and how a friendship can spawn many other kinds of bonds with various people.
The book shows what it’s like for someone who has been through abuse and trauma to love someone else, and what it’s like to love someone who has endured such awful experiences. There has been a lot of discourse about this book in recent years. When I first got into reading as an adult, this book was very popular back in the 2010s, but in the 2020s, the tides have somewhat started to turn. There has been discussion about how it represents the LGBT community; some instances, especially in the last quarter of the book, made me feel uncomfortable regarding that depiction. However, as I am not part of the community, I can’t say for certain how well it was represented.
There’s also disability representation, and we have several characters who are people of color. Our main character’s race or ethnicity is never stated, which adds to the mystery surrounding him. There’s been discourse about how abuse is portrayed in this book. Allegedly, the author did not research sexual trauma and just went with the flow of things, which to me seems quite surprising—writing something without doing any research on it. But again, this is all just hearsay I’ve seen online.
I wanted to note these claims about representation and the depiction of abuse because they could influence someone’s decision to read this book. I don’t think this is a bad book, but I also didn’t love it, nor did I hate it. I didn’t feel a strong emotional connection to it. This is one of the highest-rated literary fiction books on my TBR according to Goodreads and has been nominated for numerous awards. Therefore, if you do want to pick it up, maybe consider borrowing it from your library first before purchasing a copy.
2.75 out of 5 stars.
Izzy Reads 