A Little Life

A Little Life (Hanya Yanaghara, 2015)

How I stumbled upon it: Recommendations + the front table at the Strand.

What it's about: A Little Life follows the friendship of four college friends throughout the decades--from college, to life as young adults and then middle-aged men in NYC. They come from widely diverse backgrounds, but Jude, the main protagonist has a twisted + tragic past that he tries his best to hide from even his closest friends.

What I thought: 1. When people say this is “tragedy porn,” they are not wrong. How can SO many bad things happen to one character? How can abuse be so graphic + sustain itself for so long? Why can’t Jude catch a break? 2. I didn’t even cry at the end because the plot didn’t seem realistic to me anymore. I think this hefty (720 pages) novel could have been at least 200 pages shorter, even if the plot remained the same. That being said, it was quite beautifully written and the characters will stay with you long after the story ends. It doesn’t surprise me that there is quite a lot of controversy surrounding it, but it also has 4.2 out of 5 stars on Amazon soooo...

You can get it here.