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I'm in the middle of "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara. It is horrifically depressing and also one of the best and most cathartic books I'm ever read. I read a review that described it as "tragedy porn", and it's a pretty good description.  It's 720 pages long. I read it for 3 straight hours yesterday because I couldn't stop. I'm already sad that eventually it will end. Has anyone else read it? What did you think?
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Feb 16, 2016 18:06
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I thought it was tragedy porn too and didn't like it
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Feb 16, 2016 19:47
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I enjoyed it a lot, but I thought the unreasonable amount of suffering heaped upon Jude - abuse here, abuse there, abused when he escaped, kidnapped by an abuser - was taking the piss a little bit. I liked it more in the first half of the book when it was about all four of them, but then JB and Malcolm kind of drifted out of it and didn't have enough of an impact on the second half to justify how much time we'd spent with them in the first. But I did burn through it compulsively in a week or so, the characters were all really well drawn and the writing kept me coming back whenever I had a little spare time. Edit: I was also a little surprised that all four of them were as immensely successful in their careers as they could ever hope to be. I suppose it's there to contrast their personal miseries, but I thought there would be one of them who would have not made it, and have some resentment going on. Savings Clown fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Feb 19, 2016 |
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Feb 19, 2016 17:31
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Yes, I'm very near the end of it (just got to part where Willem dies) and it does seem to be a laughable amount of suffering. However, it's so loving well written that I don't really care. One thing I think is interesting is the relationship between Jude and Willem, which is obviously way more than a typical friendship but never quite fits into the category of straightforward romantic relationship. I think it's cool that Yanagihara gave the characters a relationship that transcends ones we typically experience in our lives, even if it is a bit unrealistic.
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Feb 20, 2016 22:01
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