A review by klaratoll
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't even know what to say. It's currently 4.30 in the morning and I just spent the last six or so hours finishing this book and most of the last four in a state ranging from slightly sniffling to outright sobbing. I'm not sure I can rate this book, certainly not at the moment, but I might have a hard time doing it later too. There were many things I loved about it, the characters, the writing, and most of all the exploration of all the different relationships between the characters. But then there are also some things that I'm not certain how to feel about just yet. I think I need to sit with it for a while to be able to collect my thoughts properly. I wouldn't say it's a book I would ever feel comfortable recommending to anyone lightly, but it is a book that will probably stay with me for a long time. 

Update: 
Okay, it's been a few days since I finished it and I think I've collected my thoughts enough to discuss some of my feelings about this novel. To say it shortly: I think I love it. Some of my thoughts below this point will probably contain spoilers so do read ahead with caution. 

The first thing I was unsure about as I finished the book was the message it potentially sends. I've seen a lot of the more negative-leaning reviews saying that the message is that some people are too broken to be helped and we should basically just give up on them and let them die. I think it's quite difficult to write a book that deals with suicide and not make it potentially carry the this message, but I don't think that books containing suicide should not be written. I hate to bring the argument of realism into this, but I will anyway. Saying that the message is that some people are too broken to help kind of ignores that people do commit suicide. Even people who are deeply, deeply loved. Even people who have recieved help and treatment. Representing this in fiction does not equate that we should give up on people. I have to say that right after finishing the book a part of me thought: "So what was the point then? Did nothing of it matter in the end?" But after having thought about it for a while I refuse to define the point of a life by how it ends, and I refuse to say that kind acts, love and friendship do not matter even if they might not be enough. Are love and moments of happiness not of any consequence just because they do not last? 

There was so much about the novel that I found hard-hitting and thought-provoking. Something that really stood out to me was how the characters were constantly wondering if they were making the right choices in relation to Jude and his traumas. Do I push this? Will I break something if i do? What happens if I don't? If I had done something differently, would things have been different? Better? I think this is quite a realistic depiction of being close to someone who is suffering in some kind of way. 

I also need to say something more elaborate on the book as a whole. It's a slow read, at times perhaps a bit too slow I thought. But in the end I think the slowness adds to the impact of it all, I don't think I would have cared as much about the character had it not been so in depth. The relationships that are explored and the the understanding and attachment I felt for all the characters is extraordinary. 

As I mentioned the novel was truly devastating, throughout to be honest, but especially the last hundred pages or so were a sob-fest for me. The excruciating thing was that I thought I had worked out what was going to happen, at least the broad strokes of it, and when I was fundamentally wrong about one thing that I had been absolutely certain of it pulled the rug right out from under me. However painful this was, it was masterfully done.
I understood that Jude was going to be dead by the end of the novel. I understood this quite early on as Harolds chapters spoke of him in past tense. I was also assured that as I understood that the letters were addressed to Willem, he was going to out-live Jude. When this was not the case I was absolutely shocked and distraught, both becuase it was a character that I loved and because of the implications Willems death had for Jude and the remainder of the story. The reason why I think this was brilliantly done is because is puts us as readers in Judes position. Jude never thought there would be even the slightest possibility of him out-living Willem, and neither did we. We experience the same shock as Jude does. This is what makes it so heartbreaking.


I do not argue with anyone who finds this book exploitative or harmful, I think it can be if read in the wrong state of mind. But I do think that there are many other things to take away from this read and a lot of them are hauntingly beautiful and reflect the many facets, ugly and beautiful, of what it is to be human. 
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