Reviews with content warning for Blood - Una vita come tante

The pain swelled to a crescendo up until that final page, with an echo of hope that wasn’t really hope at all. I can see why someone would have been sad, but I felt numb and angry. I feel, now, that I wish I could just forget everything about it.

If the purpose of the novel was to tell me that pain exists, and some people can’t handle it, can’t escape it, I didn’t need that written in over 700 pages. I have read about pain before, but worse, I have felt pain, I have met people and loved people in pain.

To spare you reading it yourself - Jude’s friends die meaninglessly and accidentally, Jude dies purposely and tragically, and after feeling bad for how he has treated those around him and refusing their help and acting horribly again and again, he leaves them behind to wonder what they could have done differently. So it is, with suicide.

Hanya Yanagihara wrote the ending, as an acceptable end to a life of suffering, which she spent 720 pages trying to convince me was too much. Trying to convince me that there is some measure of suffering which can be deemed ‘too much’, and that asking people to live beyond that line is selfish of me. Deciding not to live beyond that line is acceptable, as if they have earned it, somehow.

What sort of ending is that?
What hope does that offer the sufferer?
What meaning does that offer those who love people suffering?

As I said – if the purpose of the book was to acknowledge pain, to flesh it out and describe it beautifully, ‘A Little Life’ does no more than walk someone to the edge of despair and leave them there.

Perhaps there is no purpose – perhaps you are simply meant to cry, and feel something, and then close the book and put it back on the shelf.

Either way, it was a waste of my time.

Full review here: https://christianpears.wordpress.com/2024/09/15/on-writing-pain-a-little-life-review/

Content Warnings

pikkumarja's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Tunnen ristiriitaisesti tästä kirjasta. Proosa Pienessä elämässä on kaunista. Se on yksityiskohdissaan pyörteilevää ja jotenkin kiusallisen tarkkanäköistä. Tunsin oloni epämukavaksi, koska halusin jatkaa lukemista, vaikka se tuntui tirkistelyltä. Rakastin ihmissuhteiden kuvauksia ja erityisesti Willemiä ja Juliaa. Näiden asioiden takia matalampi arvosana ei tunnu oikeutetulta, mutta on sanottava, että jo aloittaessani lukemista olin kriittisenä liikenteessä.

Mutta onhan tämä vähän liikaa. Yksityiskohtaiset kuvaukset itsetuhoisuudesta, tuhon graafisuus ja ylipäätään queerihmisten kärsimys oli turhan mittavaa. Yksittäisenä kirjana queerkärsimys vielä menisi, mutta laajempana ilmiönä (ja koska tämäkin kirja on osa laajempaa kirjallisuuden kokonaisuutta ja kulttuuria) queerit saavat kärsiä liikaa. Ei tämä silti ole ansainnut syytöksiä traumapornosta tai epäuskottavalla trauman määrällä. Maailma ei ole reilu ja jotkut ihmiset joutuvat kärsimään enemmän kuin on inhimillisesti mahdollista. Kehotan todella lukemaan sisältövaroitukset ajan kanssa, jos et kestä joitain teemoja.

Yanagihara onnistuu luomaan todella painavan tunnelman kerronnallaan. Kirja jää varmasti elämään mielen perukoille pitkäksi aikaa monestakin syystä.

Content Warnings

jaydenmosher's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

maria_thebookworm's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

“But what was happiness but an extravagance, an impossible state to maintain, partly because it was so difficult to articulate?”

I didn't even rate this book because it is one of those books that is SO challenging to rate. The writing is gorgeous but the book is very slow, especially in the beginning. I decided to read this one because I kept seeing the book everywhere, along with reels of people crying while reading it. I became very curious.

"A Little Life" is about four male friends in NYC, their struggles, and their heartbreaks. The book specifically focuses on Jude, the main character, and the trauma and abuse in his past that he never recovers from.

If you are someone who is triggered by detailed descriptions of sexual and physical abuse, along with graphic descriptions of self-harm, I do NOT recommend this book. It is very graphic and can be very hard to read.

I read this book very, very slowly. I don't recommend trying to breeze through this one. This book took me about a month. It is over 700 pages, composed significantly of very long, detailed descriptions. It was full of many new vocabulary words. I would say that the book could definitely be a few hundred pages shorter; I typically don't like long books.

This book was extremely emotionally draining. I didn't cry (I'm not a crier when it comes to books), but I kept having to pause towards the middle and end of the book to just process how terrible Jude's life got. I had to take many moments to try to process the truly unimaginable horrors. Prepare to be traumatized, as Yanagihara does not hold back in terms of detailed descriptions of self-harm or abuse.

Without spoiling the book, I will say that Jude feels guilty and undeserving of any good and love that comes to him, which intensifies his feelings of guilt and shame. He fears people using and abusing him, even his friends and those close to him. He is afraid to believe that anything good can happen to him.

Despite many painful portions, the book details hope, love, and friendship. Jude learns what love actually means in people who never give up on him.

This book teaches the beauty of friendship, loving and sometimes getting nothing in return, forgiveness, and the concept that trauma does not have to define your life.

I recommend this book if you are looking for an intense, sad, once in a lifetime read.

“But then, didn’t everyone only tell their lives – truly tell their lives – to one person?"

Content Warnings