A Little Life

Hardcover, 736 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2015 by Doubleday.

ISBN:
978-0-385-53925-8
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OCLC Number:
1026273667

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4 stars (38 reviews)

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome -- but that will define his life forever

Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist, 2015

25 editions

Like Aronofsky’s “Mother!” the pain is the point.

No rating

Challenging in every sense of the word. The unrelenting abuse inflicted on Jude felt like torture porn. I threw my hands up repeatedly wondering if such extremes were an intentional choice. Alternately exploitative and compelling to explore the mindset of someone so mistreated as well as those around him. Goes on too long. A genuine art experience from a book. I’m grateful for it but don’t need to repeat. Both 5 stars and 0, so no rating.

Review of 'Ein wenig Leben' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Emotional damage.

Addendum: It is brilliant! Because of the time span this book covers, it almost feels like an epic fantasy. It's definitely a long read, but I actually didn't feel bored at any point. It made me feel things - not sadness, tbh, but pain, guilt, hate and anger. The book slaps the abysses of humanity right in your face. "A Little Life" is at the same time both exaggerated and realistic.
I may read it again in the future to understand how all the clues are woven into the story. Despite loving this book very much, I won't be able to recommend it unreservedly to friends and family. At least not without the list of trigger warnings.

A Little Life

2 stars

Struggles presented as universal take on a quality of mocking delusion when the excess of protagonists (only male voices) all become famous millionaires at the top of their fields who own fabulous and plural homes and have access to private jets and Alhambra strolls. The decided main character also has riches in an expansive circle of equally jet-setting friends who over the span of decades never give up on him despite constant vehement testing-our-friendship pushback. We’re told they remain devoted and compassionate yet none ever actually do rudimentary research on how to, if not guide him to knowledgeable help, talk to him and make steps to reposition the thinking and identity of a friend who has lived through extremities of harm. The glamour and American dreaming has its counterbalance in a childhood filled with horrors heaped on horrors of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse.

Even if it had been thoughtfully …

handle with care

4 stars

You need to be either sadist or masochist to endure this work without too much damage. At least 600 of the 720 pages of the book are intense descriptions of intricate sufferings. But I can tell you that you'll never look at your relationship with your significant other the same way ever again as she delves during the whole book on the relationship between the sufferer (Jude) and his friend/lover Willem. Yanagihara in her pursuit of pain is merciless and follows each ramifications to it's bitter end. A life changing work for me.

Review of 'A Little Life' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

3.5

This book makes me really want to discuss it with other people. The writing is beautiful and the detail the author finds in so many walks of life is fantastic. Everyone said it was sad and they weren't wrong, there are some sad parts, but overall I'd classify it as depressing more than sad.

How much trauma is enough to justify being a bad person? To not even want to be better even though you have the tools available to try and you're hurting all those around you by not doing it? I don't know, but this book made me think about it a lot.

The characters are interesting, the 'privilege porn' is fun if a little on the nose. Seriously, all the main characters are ultra high functioning success stories, live in beautiful places and travel to stunning exotic locations as well as being super gifted both artistically …

Review of 'A Little Life' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The writing is beautiful and goes a long way in redeeming some of the book’s weaknesses. It really is the best writing I’ve read in a while. Early on, someone asked me how the book I was reading was and I’d said that it was devastatingly beautiful. The problem is that, as good as the writing is, Three quarters of the way through, I just wanted it to end.

Some issues:

The book says it’s about the relationship between four men but it’s really only about two of them and, even then, leans heavily in the direction of one man - Jude - and his tragic life. The story is really about him.

Malcolm is nearly invisible as a character. Why does this character exist?

The whole second half of the book could have been lopped off. It would have been an excellent book. Instead, it goes on too long …

Review of 'Małe życie' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Nienawidzę tej książki.
Autorka trochę na początku oszukuje - książka ma być o czterech młodych przyjaciołach. Jednak szybko okazuje się, że tak nie będzie.
Książka skonstruowana jest idealnie - poprzez liczne retrospekcje jesteśmy uderzani "gorszącymi" scenami. Zaczyna się od małej ranki (dosłownie), kończy się na zmiażdżeniu głowy (dosłownie).
Książka jest niesamowita pod tym względem, że poznajemy życie bohaterów od ich młodości aż do starości i śmierci.
Jeśli tak wygląda życie, to nie chcę żyć. Choć książka ukazała mi, że jedna śmierć, cierpienie prowadzi do kolejnych i w sumie trudno to powstrzymać.
Poznałem bohaterów doszczętnie - ich relacja nie pozwala się zatrzymać, choć w przedostatnim rozdziale odczuwa się głęboką nienawiść do książki.
Ostatni rozdział mnie trochę rozczarował. Wprowadzenie trzeciosobowego narratora powoduje, że czyta się relację dużo lżej, praktycznie bez emocji.
Zastanawia mnie też nagromadzenie homoseksualnych pedofilów w tej książce - w USA wg autorki jest nim sporo kierowców TIRów i braci …

Review of 'A Little Life' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I grew increasingly impatient and unsympathetic, I'm afraid. Not with Jude; but with the repeated re-visitation of Jude's woes in the narration. I guess this was a device - no doubt Jude's nightmarish life would be like that.

Yanagihara describes Jude's world in great detail and yet the other characters - including Willem remain more-or-less cyphers.

The London Times says, "Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind". Not me, I'm out of here.

Review of 'A Little Life' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

A Little Life is a novel about the lifelong friendship of four classmates from a Massachusetts liberal arts college. After college, Willem (an actor), JB (an artist), Malcolm (an architect) and Jude (a lawyer) move to New York to begin their lives. The novel begins by following the friends through their lives and careers and the shifting dynamics of the group. However, Jude becomes the primary focus as we learn about his horrifying backstory.

I am of two minds with this novel; first of all, there are some very important issues explored within A Little Life. I am sure many people have been told about the high amount of trigger warnings that come with this book, dealing with depression, abuse, self-mutilation and so much more. It was nice to explore friendship that are not just a group of heterosexual men. The book itself explore so many issues and I got …

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