A Big Read

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Hanya Yanagihara's book may be called 'A Little Life', but it is not a 'little' story in any sense of the word. It is a HUGE book - 720 pages in hardback - heavy to hold, let alone read! - and the range of emotions it covers is similarly immense. At times I found it almost too unbearable to continue with - the pain described, physical as well as mental, being so vivid that every so often I had to screw up my eyes to get through a page. But ultimately, and wonderfully, and much more importantly, 'A Little Life' is a book about that thing that we choose to call Love. An ironically 'little' word, if you think about it, for a term referring to the vast, most defining aspect of being human.

The narrative of 'A Little Life' encompasses a span of fifty-plus years, covering the friendships between four male American college graduates, Willem, JB, Malcolm and Jude, one of whom is heterosexual while the other three waver or have gay relationships. At the core of this group, and key to its shifting dynamics, is the character of Jude. And the thing that we gather early on about Jude is that he has endured - and survived - the most hideous sexual abuse that those of us fortunate enough to be unacquainted with such horror are capable of imagining. Cleverly and crucially, Yanagihara never actually describes this abuse in so many words; instead she gives us just enough information to form the necessary images ourselves - a far more potent way of evoking the indescribable.

So Jude is damaged goods, a survivor who never talks of what he has survived, because not-talking is how he has coped. He wants to leave that part of his life behind for good and the reader wants him to as well. Very badly! Seldom can I remember rooting for a character so much. But though Jude has wonderful friends and a fantastic career and all the support (including medical) that one could possibly want for him, the agony and effects of his past maintain their grisly stranglehold. He self-harms, to life-threatening levels. While, in terms of emotional well-being, he has good patches but also terrible ones. His friends look out for him as best they can, but their powers have their limits. And on it goes through the years. The roller-coaster of Jude's life: Fabulous ups. Horrendous downs. Until at last he finds 'true love' and you think, hooray! it's all going to be okay!

And in a way it is okay. The love story that unfolds is as moving as any I have read. It makes absolutely no difference whether you are gay or straight (for the record, I am the latter), since Yanagihara manages to convey the quality and depth and beauty of true human connection with a power that transcends sexuality. For that alone, I think this book deserves every one of the five stars I have given it.

But in a way what then happens is also NOT okay, both because we can never escape who we are and because life has a habit of never being a straight road. The zigzags are a given; part of the magic and the tragedy of being alive. None of us can ever know what is just around the corner. Yanagihara stares this truth in the face just as she stares all others. I found the ending of the novel as shocking as it was believable, just as I did all that had happened in the run-up to that ending. And when I closed the book after 720 pages, I wished there were 720 more.

So. In conclusion: Wow. Wow. Wow. But definitely not for the lily-livered or the faint of heart. In fact probably best to put on a hard hat and a seat-belt before you begin.





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