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A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara (Goodreads Author)

4.33 · Rating details · 370,739 ratings · 57,189 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cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, b ...more

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Hardcover, First Edition, 720 pages

Published March 10th 2015 by Doubleday

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· 370,739 ratings · 57,189 reviews

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Oct 10, 2015 Glenn Sumi rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 5 THINGS I LIKED ABOUT A LITTLE LIFE
(AND 5 THINGS I DIDN'T)

Everyone’s talking about Hanya Yanagihara’s Booker- and National Book Award-nominated blockbuster novel. There are lots of 5 star raves on this site. Many people are saying it’s one of the most incredible books they’ve ever read. I hate to be the outlier or considered cold-hearted (I’m not! I cry over books and movies ALL THE TIME!!!). The book took me just under 2 weeks to finish, and I’m glad I read it. I liked it, I really liked it! B ...more

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Jun 09, 2015 Michael Flick rated it did not like it

Shelves: worst

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Some believe that this is “The Great Gay Novel.” That couldn’t be more wrong. There are only two recognizable gay men in this work, JB and Caleb. A creative queen and a violent, probably psychopathic, sadist. All the other “possibilities” are pedophiles (categorically not gay—that’s a sickness, an evil, that has nothing to do with being gay) or so hopelessly confused (and impotent) that you can’t know what they are (JB and Willem). The take on gay men here is antediluvian—a dangerous and discred ...more

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Dec 13, 2015 Ashley rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-for-book-club, audiobooks, fiction, lgbtqia, orphalins, lit-fic, award-winners, class-gender-race, manly-men-and-their-manparts, romantical-tragical

Fuck this book.

And it started out so well! The writing is actually gorgeous. I can see why many, many people like this book. Really, Hanya Yanagihara knows how to use language. Unfortunately, the story she told was not worthy of it. The longer I read this book, the more I dreaded reading it, the worse my feelings got as I read, and the more I hated it for existing. Then I read a bunch of interviews by her and hated the book even more.

The long and short of it is that this book is nothing but mise ...more

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Mar 24, 2015 Emily May rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015, contemporary

A Little Life is a strong contender for the award for the most depressing book I've ever read. I swear I'm not even exaggerating.

At this point, I'm not certain whether this is a positive or negative review. There's no doubt that this book is beautifully-written and contains some of the most raw and honest prose I've ever had the pleasure or misfortune of reading, but it's a ~~long~~ very long character study - over 700 pages of misery, substance abuse, self-harm, sexual and psychological abuse (and ...more

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Aug 13, 2015 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult-fiction, favorites, five-stars, lgbtq, realistic-fiction, own-physical

I slept with this book after I read it. I kid you not: I held its bulking, hardcover bound 700 pages in my arms as I fell asleep amid a raging storm. I refused to let A Little Life leave me. Its brilliant writing, its broken characters, and its bleak, unforgiving story dug into my heart, into the very pores of my skin. As a twenty-year-old, I felt both so young and so old upon finishing this novel, as if its sheer humanity aged my soul while making me appreciate all the years I still have left.

A I slept with this book after I read it. I kid you not: I held its bulking, hardcover bound 700 pages in my arms as I fell asleep amid a raging storm. I refused to let A Little Life leave me. Its brilliant writing, its broken characters, and its bleak, unforgiving story dug into my heart, into the very pores of my skin. As a twenty-year-old, I felt both so young and so old upon finishing this novel, as if its sheer humanity aged my soul while making me appreciate all the years I still have left.

A Little Life follows four friends after they graduate from a small, prestigious Massachusetts college: Willem, a kind and talented actor; JB, a sharp and sometimes-caustic artist, Malcolm, an aspiring architect at a well-known firm; and Jude, a mysterious and intelligent litigator. What looks like an average bildungsroman turns into an intense and tragic tale when we learn about enigmatic Jude's backstory. Abandoned at a monastery at birth, he endured a childhood of severe physical and emotional abuse, followed by several years of sexual abuse, forced prostitution, and psychological trauma. The book soon hones in on Jude's struggle to free himself from the demons of his past, the hyenas that howl and drown out the voices of his closest, most beloved friends.

This book is relentlessly sad and exquisitely written. Hanya Yanagihara spares us no mercy when revealing Jude's trauma. She details both his past abuse and his present self-harm with explicit specificity, her diction so precise and piercing it made me shake, and at times, sob. Yanagihara writes both Jude's suffering and his friendships with a keen eye. She captures the nuances of human emotion, physical space, and change over time with eloquence and heart. She writes about some of the most wretched, abominable acts of cruelty I have ever read without sentimentalizing any of the abuse or making any of the characters' feelings mawkish.

Yanagihara offers us temporary respite from the pain within Jude's past by showing us the power of friendship. A Little Life's most affective moments come not from its graphic depictions of violence, but from its quiet, uplifting portrayals of compassion. While the many abusive men in Jude's earlier life show us the depth of human atrocity, Jude's tender, bittersweet relationships with Willem, Harold, Andy, and others offer to us mankind's capacity for kindness. All of these complex characters make mistakes, and through their imperfections shines their humanness.

Please keep in mind: A Little Life is ruthlessly depressing. In the end, Jude really receives no reprieve from his anguish. As someone who has suffered his own abuse - a version less intense than Jude's, yet still real - and as someone who reads a lot about abuse, I appreciated Yanagihara's dedication to showing the darker side of reality. Trauma is trauma is trauma. And while we can all fight for recovery, sometimes that absolvement may never come. Sometimes, we just have to act with whatever kindness we have left and hope that it brings even a moment of light into the dark.

Highly recommended to anyone who wants their heart both filled and destroyed. Set aside some quality time for A Little Life. It will consume you. ...more

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Jan 25, 2015 Jessica Woodbury rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, lgbtq, best-2015-arcs, authors-of-color, arc-provided-by-publisher, bff

It may sound presumptuous to say in January that I've read the best book I've read all year, but reading is a lot like love. Sometimes you just know.

A LITTLE LIFE is a title with 3 meanings. First, it refers to its protagonist, Jude, a man who cannot ever accept that his life is worthwhile. Second, it refers to the act of reading it, spending time in this book is really like living a version of life.

There is a third meaning, one that you don't discover until around halfway through the book when It may sound presumptuous to say in January that I've read the best book I've read all year, but reading is a lot like love. Sometimes you just know.

A LITTLE LIFE is a title with 3 meanings. First, it refers to its protagonist, Jude, a man who cannot ever accept that his life is worthwhile. Second, it refers to the act of reading it, spending time in this book is really like living a version of life.

There is a third meaning, one that you don't discover until around halfway through the book when the title's words are used in a context that is like a punch to the gut. When you read them you may find yourself having a physical reaction, your stomach may flip, your skin may go cold, you may gasp for breath. And that is a lot of what the experience of reading this book is like. You can call these parts of the book words like "awful," but to be real you'd need to pull out your thesaurus and just line them up one after the other. This is not a book that is easy for your emotions. You care about the people in it, so the pain can really hurt you.

You will hear that this is a book about 4 friends. It's not. They're a nice framing device, but this is a book about one person and the people who are connected to him. His life is made up of extremes. I found myself weeping over and over again because of the love and compassion and kindness that characters in the book displayed. But this book has some of the most harrowing and horrifying scenes I've read anywhere. It is not really spoiling anything to say this involves terrible things happening to a child. Everyone knows from the very beginning that something bad happened to Jude when he was young. It's just so much worse than you could imagine. (If you have trouble reading about child abuse, it's probably best you not read this book. While it's essential to the story, it is not glossed over or referenced vaguely and what is described is truly terrible to contemplate.)

Jude is not a new character. The damaged soul whose self-worth never really recovers is present in a lot of modern fiction. Yanagihara's trick, I think, is just how willing she is to plumb the depths of his darkness and its effects on those around him. She follows him for decades, observes him in all situations, and is unflinching in her depictions. Her writing is the kind of good that you can miss if you're not paying attention. You are so caught up in her story that it's easy to miss just how agile and careful the book is. It eases back and forth from character to character, backwards and forwards in time, and it never feels strained.

I stayed up for hours to finish this book and then couldn't sleep because I couldn't let it go. I was overcome by the book and by the loss of finishing it.

This is a book about love and what it means and what it can do and it is the humanity of its characters and their love for each other that will stick with me.

If it was presumptuous to say this is my favorite book of 2015 since it tries to predict the future, I do feel that I can dig through the past and assert with certainty that this is one of the best books I've ever read. ...more

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Mar 09, 2015 Gin Jenny (Reading the End) rated it did not like it

Note: I received an ebook copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.

Around page 150 of Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel, A Little Life, which follows four friends from their college years into their fifties, I wrote the following in my notes:

I am more excited about Hanya Yanagihara and her work and her career than I have been about any author in a really long time.

Around page 200 I wrote this:

Is Jude’s suffering perhaps a tad overwrought? It is starting to seem like everything Note: I received an ebook copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.

Around page 150 of Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel, A Little Life, which follows four friends from their college years into their fifties, I wrote the following in my notes:

I am more excited about Hanya Yanagihara and her work and her career than I have been about any author in a really long time.

Around page 200 I wrote this:

Is Jude’s suffering perhaps a tad overwrought? It is starting to seem like everything bad happens to him forever. Maybe we should spend some time with one of the other characters.

Page 200 Jenny was right, and Page 150 Jenny was — well, hope springs eternal, and maybe Yanagihara’s third book will be back up to the standard of The People in the Trees. But as for A Little Life, describing Jude’s suffering as “a tad overwrought” is like describing Dolores Umbridge as “a tad unpleasant.” Yanagihara employs a plot strategy of which I was very fond when I was eleven, which was to think of as many dreadful fates as I could and heap them upon my protagonist one after another. Then when I ran out of ideas, I killed the protagonist off and wrote heartrending scenes of her friends-and-relations mourning her wretched life and too-early passing. I did this because I was eleven. I am not sure what Yanagihara’s problem is.

We learn early on that Jude is physically frail, due to an unspecified injury in his past, and that his family isn’t in the picture. Over the course of seven hundred pages, Yanagihara unfolds a cartoonishly woeful backstory to explain all of this. When you first start to recognize the way Jude’s abusive past is tearing him apart in the present, it’s heartbreaking. After two or three wicked villains have gotten through abusing him just because they’re evil, you start worrying that if the author doesn’t right the ship, you’re going to find yourself in the unenviable position of describing a depiction of child sex abuse as silly in your eventual review.

The maddening waste is that Yanagihara’s writing is elegant and evocative, and she’s able — at times — to capture with precision and delicacy the true, messy emotions between her characters. And the kind of story that she’s (I think) trying to tell is a kind of story I want to see more of. I want a story that doesn’t pretend there’s a straight path out of trauma into healing that you travel once and then you reach the end and you and your trauma have no further business to transact. I want a story that places serious value on relationships other than romantic ones. I want a story about loving someone who cannot always see his way clear to continuing to live in this world.

Ideally, of course, these stories would reach me unencumbered by several metric tons of lunatic melodrama, and I would not have to use the word dreck in reference to an author I admire. But in this I am evidently destined for disappointment. ...more

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Sep 28, 2015 Kai Spellmeier added it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, queer

“Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?”

Two months. Books usually don't take me this long to be read. Even long books don't. So what's the reason I was stuck with this book for so long?

Let's see. The never ending suffering and pain. The exaggerated and gross cruelty. The sadistic hopelessness. That's why.

I had such high expectations. And it would have been so easy to meet them. All I longed for while reading thi “Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?”

Two months. Books usually don't take me this long to be read. Even long books don't. So what's the reason I was stuck with this book for so long?

Let's see. The never ending suffering and pain. The exaggerated and gross cruelty. The sadistic hopelessness. That's why.

I had such high expectations. And it would have been so easy to meet them. All I longed for while reading this book - and talking myself into picking it up and finishing it - was for the main character to find hope. Not happiness, I cancelled out that option pretty quickly, but the hope that happiness might be an option. Spoiler: He never found it.
Now, we all know and love that kind of book, those epic and dramatic novels we read, cause they'll sweep us away and make us weep, make our heart ache. And we love those books cause we know they will mend our broken hearts again. We will suffer, but we're going to be happy about it.
I expected to cry and weep a lot with this book. I had tears in my eyes, yes, but those were tears of desperation and hatred. Hanya Yanagihara abuses the main character maliciously, mistreats our feelings, and shows us how ugly and hurtful a single life can be.
I'm not sure what people mean when they say this was a beautiful book. Possibly the prose? The setting? Sure as hell not Jude's story right? Sure as hell, not the fact that - spoiler - he literally gets fucked and crippled by countless disgusting and evil men, who make him believe that he is a worthless, ugly, non-deserving piece of trash for his entire life, so that he finally kills himself STILL convinced he is worthless, ugly and non-deserving.

What kind of book is this. How far does an author have to go? Why does an author have to get so disgustingly graphic, so horrific?

Yes, I admit, there were nice parts. Yes, I enjoyed the writing. Yes I loved the travels and the infinitely rich lifestyle everyone seemed to live, but which also made this book even less credible. Yes, of course, I celebrated Jude's achievements, friendships, his lucky moments. But all his lucky moments, all the love he deserved, all the friends he had, had to be taken from him. And this shattered my awe for and good opinion of this novel.

This book was filled to the brim with queer pain, and frankly I'm not here for that. I don't think queer characters shouldn't be allowed to suffer, but they're owed a chance at happiness. No such luck here.

Find more of my books on Instagram ...more

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Feb 10, 2015 Maxwell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned

I can't, with a clear conscience, give this book anything less than 5 stars. It's a book that kept me reading long into the night, made me turn each page with vigor and curiosity, gave me chills and shivers over the joys and sorrows of each character, and ultimately left me feeling a bit older and tortured and yet at peace with the deeply complicated nature of humanity.

What Hanya Yanagihara does with A Little Life is nothing nearly as pretentious as that paragraph above. Somehow in 720 pages, s I can't, with a clear conscience, give this book anything less than 5 stars. It's a book that kept me reading long into the night, made me turn each page with vigor and curiosity, gave me chills and shivers over the joys and sorrows of each character, and ultimately left me feeling a bit older and tortured and yet at peace with the deeply complicated nature of humanity.

What Hanya Yanagihara does with A Little Life is nothing nearly as pretentious as that paragraph above. Somehow in 720 pages, she manages to adequately--better yet, excellently--show and make the reader experiences the lives of these young men. The novel follows four boys who meet at college: Malcolm, JB, Willem, and the central and mysterious figure, Jude. It's truly Jude's tale, but Yanagihara ends up telling each and every one of the boys' stories with ease and genuineness that makes them real.

Her prose is clean and honest and revealing of the many emotions that humans experience. It's never explicitly beautiful, not flowery or overwrought with adjectives or descriptors. But it has its own beauty that comes from its ability to convey these feelings, making you feel every pain or happiness that Malcolm and JB and Willem and Jude feel. It's some of the best prose I've read in a while (or ever read), and I wanted it to keep going on forever.

There's so much more I could say about this book. About how it hurt me to read at times--because yes, there is very graphic material (i.e. self-harm, physical, sexual and psychological abuse, drug use) that makes the reading cringeworthy in parts--about how I fell in love with so many wonderful people in this story, about how I learned empathy and sorrow and frustration and anger for and with each of them, and how if I were to write a book I would want it to have the essence of this one.

The truth is, though, I can't recommend this book to people, not without knowing them very well. Because it's a difficult journey that I can't suggest everyone take. Don't take this book lightly. But if you do choose to read it, if you choose to flip to that first page, be prepared for something inexplicable and jarring, but resilient and beautiful and ultimately worthwhile.

...more

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Jul 19, 2021 emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, recommend, slump-worthy, 5-stars, favorites-2021, beautifully-written, reviewed, lgbt-plus, owned, diverse

This is an excellent, maybe perfect book, and I will never recommend it to anyone.

(It's also one of my favorites of the year...find it here: https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...)

The edition I read is 951 pages long, and I read it in 24 hours. My sister calculated that I read a page every waking minute, even as it was a workday. I have never in my life lived inside a story like I did this one.

I slept little. I couldn't focus on anything. When I tried to pick up books after this one they were ...more

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Mar 15, 2015 Estelle rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: hate-list

Brace yourself for the most melodramatic, pretentious, dull, dumb, overwritten, repetitive, laughable, cringe-inducing, self-indulgent, unbelievable, stereotypical, voyeuristic, contrived piece of fiction.

After pushing through and trying to motivate myself to finish this book just to see if there's more to it or some kind of message there... I'm putting this book down for good.
90% in. Normally, I would have kept going just to find out what happens to the characters, but honestly I care so litt ...more

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Jun 16, 2019 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

OMG my poor heart... I can't...

If you want to find yourself sobbing late at night for characters you grow so attached to and have to put down the book for a while… this is it.

It’s been a very long time since a book utterly broke me.

Beautifully written character driven book (see I like them sometimes!) about our friends meeting in university in New York. It’s about their lives, their careers, their friendships, their high points but mostly their low ones.

Trigger warnings for… everything. ...more

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Jan 30, 2015 Alexander Patino rated it it was amazing

You get a first read only once. I don't know what to say. It's the book of my life. Not that it mirrors my life, but that it's the literary love of my life. I know I get hyperbolic about this kind of stuff, but it is what it is. The most cathartic reading experience I've ever had. I'm shaking and crying writing this. How to move on after this one - hard to imagine I will. ...more

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Apr 23, 2019 jessica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites

i have died a hundred deaths and shed a thousand tears whilst reading this book. it feels as if i have never truly known grief until this moment. how does one recover from such heartbreak?

i am at a complete loss, in a devastatingly beautiful way; but how comforting it is to know that a story about a little life has become such a significant part of mine.

↠ 5 stars

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Aug 28, 2021 Hannah Azerang rated it did not like it

edit: after months of sitting on this and finally collecting my thoughts, I can firmly say that I despise this book and I still wish i'd never read it

august 2021: I can’t give this a rating. I don’t even know what I think about it. I just wish I’d never read it. ...more

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Sep 13, 2015 Roxane rated it it was amazing

Brilliant, devastating, heartbreaking. Fucking hatefully sad at times. There are places that are overwrought and overwritten but this is an amazing, engrossing novel. Just wow.

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Sep 23, 2015 Victoria Schwab added it

Jesus Christ.
I cried for an HOUR last night.
This freaking book.

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Dec 14, 2019 Kat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

did i finish this book, or did this book finish me?

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Feb 21, 2020 Whitney Atkinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favs-of-2020, made-me-cry, lgbtqiap, read-in-2020

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Feb 25, 2020 ELLIAS (elliasreads) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2020-books, i-own

The best and ultimately, the worst book I've ever read in my entire life.

Video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmat...

Twitter | Bookstagram | Youtube | ...more

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Aug 08, 2015 Holly rated it it was ok

I'm having really bad luck with long novels these days. There's just so much about this book I didn't like, and very little I did like, that I don't really want to talk about it very much. Everything was supremely unbelievable, especially the fact that Jude's life could be so perfect and his past and demons could be so traumatic. Did anyone ever just meet this guy and think, "meh, what a sad sack"? Did he ever take an exam and make a B? Did he ever just want to go to the movies or watch Netflix? ...more

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Feb 25, 2017 Mischenko rated it it was amazing

Please visit my blog www.readrantrockandroll.com to see this review and others.

I decided to spend some of my weekend, which turned out to be all day today, catching up on some reading. I started A Little Life sometime in January, but had to put it down a few times due to time restrictions on other books. Plus, this book is colossal. It's a smidge over 700 pages.

I'll start by saying that I can't recollect the last time I felt so connected to characters in a story. I was so consumed with the fou ...more

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Jan 13, 2015 Nick Pageant rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, favorite-rereadable, gay-lit, alonamakesbooksbetter, gen-fic

A Little Life is a powerful, disturbing novel. It's full of pain, desperation, and a sense of isolating sadness that sucks the reader into some very dark places. It's also the best book I've read in years.

Reading the blurb, you'll get the idea that this work is about 4 college friends and their lives, but that's not entirely true. While each of the 4 main characters, and in fact all the characters in the book, are fully realized with extraordinary character development, the book is really about A Little Life is a powerful, disturbing novel. It's full of pain, desperation, and a sense of isolating sadness that sucks the reader into some very dark places. It's also the best book I've read in years.

Reading the blurb, you'll get the idea that this work is about 4 college friends and their lives, but that's not entirely true. While each of the 4 main characters, and in fact all the characters in the book, are fully realized with extraordinary character development, the book is really about just one man, Jude St. Francis.

Jude is a truly broken person; he's been broken by a childhood that is both a series of horrors that are difficult to read about and a testament to what a human being can endure. Jude doesn't come out of his childhood whole and I feel a little broken by having read about his life. I also feel that strange happiness that comes from being emotionally purged in the way that only great books can accomplish.

As Alona mentioned in her review, this is not a romance, but it is a love story. It's a love story about friendship that tries to overcome pain, and the bravery and sacrifice that true friendship and love sometimes require. The romance in this book is a beautiful one, but not in the traditional sense that a reader might expect or want for the characters involved.

We all often say that we loved this character or that character in one of the many books that we read, I know I say it often, but the character of Jude St. Francis is something special. I loved Jude more than I've loved any character before; that's probably why he was capable of so thoroughly breaking my heart. I wanted so much for him, I wanted him to be so much and get so much in life. He didn't get all that I wanted for him, but in the end, I was satisfied with where he ended up and it seemed fitting and very real.

I hate the term "triggers", but it's appropriate here. I have a few triggers of my own and they were part of this book, but I felt the writing here just brought me into those places that I don't like to go and left me, not upset or feeling traumatized, but more appreciative of my own ability to survive and thrive. I wanted to reach into the book and take Jude's hand and tell him we'd get through it together.

This book is definitely not for everyone, but if you're up to it, you'll be thrilled by the writing. There's pain here, and beauty along with it.

Big thanks to Alona for the many messages we exchanged while reading this. It sounds silly, but I feel as if the two of us have survived something together.

...more

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Mar 30, 2015 Perry rated it did not like it

Shelves: barrel-bottom-worst-i-have-read

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly....
It should be thrown with great force. Dorothy Parker

Proudly Manipulating Readers into nth Degree of Misery and Sorrow

I hated this book. I cannot recall another that so raised my ire. An über liberal pre-meditated wah-wah, going so far into the wimper-sphere that it might be seen as an ironic harbinger of middle America’s 2016 backlash against paternalistic elitism which delivered us the worst leader in U.S. history.

In this [Vulture piece] the au ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Maggie Stiefvater added it

Shelves: adult

Gave it a shot; not for me, although it may work well for others as the prose is quite inviting and the world dense and inhabited. Felt as if it possibly veered a little too far towards voyeurism and far from truth-telling, which, with the subject matter, wasn't an equation that worked for me. ...more

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Jun 28, 2015 Andrew Smith rated it it was amazing

Heed my warning: do not pick this book up if you're having a bad day! On the other hand, if you're in a good space and fancy something challenging and absorbing that might take over your life for a while (it's over 700 pages long) - this is the one.

There are many excellent reviews out there should you wish to delve into the micro details of the plot. But it's not my style to give so much away so I'll limit myself to a few lines on this. Ostensibly it's the tale of four students (Jude, Willem, M Heed my warning: do not pick this book up if you're having a bad day! On the other hand, if you're in a good space and fancy something challenging and absorbing that might take over your life for a while (it's over 700 pages long) - this is the one.

There are many excellent reviews out there should you wish to delve into the micro details of the plot. But it's not my style to give so much away so I'll limit myself to a few lines on this. Ostensibly it's the tale of four students (Jude, Willem, Malcolm and JB) who live and study together and it tracks how their lives develop from this point. Of course it draws in additional characters, many of whom continue to feature throughout the book, and it eventually settles into a narrative about the life of Jude, specifically, with the others becoming support characters.

Jude, it transpires, had a profoundly disturbing childhood and his full history is told in segments spread throughout the book. The flashback sections read like a gothic horror story and it's no overstatement to say that I had to put the book down on numerous occasions, overcome by the sheer brutality of the text.

So this is one element of the book: how does someone like Jude, who has experienced such an upbringing, integrate themself into the wider world? Can he succeed and prosper or will he be overcome by nightmares of the past and subsequently crash and burn? A second, and for me more prominent, theme of the book is related to adult friendship and love. In fact I'd go as far as to say it could be considered a friendship bible and you may find yourself weighing your own actions against those detailed herein – I for one found myself hugely wanting in this regard.( I give myself three out of ten.) It really did make me think about how I ‘manage’ (or fail to) my relationships, the little things and the bigger things. There are some wonderful sections on this:

The only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people better than you are – not smarter, not cooler, but kinder and more generous, and more forgiving – and then appreciate them for what they can teach you, and try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad – or good - it might be, and then to trust them, which is the hardest of all. But the best, as well.

It was like any relationship, he felt – it took constant pruning, and dedication and vigilance, and if neither party wanted to make the effort, why wouldn't it wither?

Wasn't friendship it's own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem a little less lonely?

There’s also a brilliant piece about finding a partner, with a theory espoused that you should identify three qualities from a wish list that are most important to you. If these are fulfilled by the prospective partner to be then you've struck gold! It’s too much to ask for any more than the three qualities to be ticked off, so you shouldn't demand it or expect it. I found myself trying to work out which I'd choose and which I'd discard. And how would I prioritise those I'd chosen for my shortlist? Too cold to be truly effective? Maybe…

If I have one quibble it would relate to how forgiving and how persistent Jude’s friends are. Are they too good to be true? In aggregate, do Jude's actions feel deserving of such treatment? I'm not sure. But that's small beer when I consider the wealth of emotions I experienced in reading this book; the pure reward of reading probably one of the top five books I've ever read. I won't say I'd read it again - it's just too draining – but I would urge all lovers of the written word to find time for this one. ...more

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May 06, 2021 chan ☆ added it

Shelves: 2021, dnf

and award for quickest DNF of this book goes to yours truly, at 1%

i thought i'd be tapping out around the 50% mark but for the life of me i can't get past the writing. i know it's lauded as being gorgeous and like... i can see it. but it was a leeeettle impersonal and a touch pretentious to me.

i know what this story is about and i don't think it's going to have it's intended impact on me so i think i am going to stop while i'm ahead. happy for those of y'all that connect with this one, but real ...more

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Nov 20, 2020 Althea ☾ rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: rep-bipoc, rep-queer, read-physical-copy, adult-lit, author-bipoc, rep-asian, genre-literary-fiction, genre-contemporary, adult-contemporary, rep-mental-health

I don’t want to read a book written by an able-bodied person on the suffering of a disabled person without the research and nuance. You are allowed to love this book (I don’t though) but don’t close your eyes to the fact that this is an able-bodied person writing about how a gay disabled character “never gets better”…. I don’t like what that says.

Everyone keeps saying “books don’t need to have a happy ending” and that’s why people dislike this book. But it’s not the reason? Atleast not for me. ...more

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Jan 29, 2018 Kaylin (The Re-Read Queen) rated it did not like it

Shelves: unpopular-opinions, disability-and-chronic-illness, literary-fiction, why-the-hype

DNF @ 50%

(Keep in mind 50% of this behemoth is around 370 pages)

I give up. I can't do it anymore. I can't pick this book up and continue reading when every page is so painful. I can handle angst and drama-- and enjoy it most of the time! But this was ridiculous.

I strongly caution those with chronic illness, mental illness or disability be very wary of this book

Because it's not angst. It's torture porn at the disabled character's expense.

This is the story of three incredibly selfish "friends" wh ...more

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Mar 12, 2015 Robin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommended to Robin by: Ann

Shelves: booker-prize-nominated, literary-fiction, 2015, american

Sigh. How to even begin talking about this book?? How to put a rating on it?

First of all, it was Brutal, with a capital B. Huge disclaimer to anyone looking to read this - anything painful, anything unfair that you can think of, this book has it: sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, drug addiction, rape, self mutilation, suicide, horrific violence, abduction, amputation, devastating trust violations, I could go on. So if you are sensitive to any of these topics, or even if you aren't - be Sigh. How to even begin talking about this book?? How to put a rating on it?

First of all, it was Brutal, with a capital B. Huge disclaimer to anyone looking to read this - anything painful, anything unfair that you can think of, this book has it: sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, drug addiction, rape, self mutilation, suicide, horrific violence, abduction, amputation, devastating trust violations, I could go on. So if you are sensitive to any of these topics, or even if you aren't - be warned! Very upsetting stuff here.

That all aside, Hanya Yanagihara is a masterful writer. The way she weaves within time... effortlessly, it seemed to me... and within different points of view, was quite amazing. The depths she gets into character, very impressive. I rarely cry when reading a book, but I cried several times during this book. She did draw me in, she made me care about Jude, she made me hope against hope that this man would find peace and realise his self worth.

BUT - a few things here. 1) I felt it was bloated, and repetitive, painfully so. She does go on and on about certain things (not wanting to spoil so I won't say more). 2) The female characters were few and fairly one-dimensional. 3) It got to the point for me where the graphic scenes and violence started to feel gratuitous.

However, I was willing to go with all that - was willing to endure the devastation with Jude, because I had such high hopes about how the book might end. I don't want to ruin anything about the plot - but it was the ending which really wrecked the book for me. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect everything to be happy and wrapped up with a pretty pink ribbon. But the way the book ended, I was left thinking "what the hell was the point of THAT?". And then that made me kind of mad that I was subjected to all the atrocities that the previous many hundreds of pages had laid out. I can't unread that, can't un-know that... and it feels like it was all for naught.

Then, I read many many many reviews of people raving - this is the book of their lives, this is the best book of the year, and - well, I just don't get it.

I have heard the book compared to Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch". In some ways, I understand the comparison. Both books are epic, both beautifully written, both follow a young man who has been scarred unfairly by the past and whose life therefore follows quite a trajectory as a result. However, those who loved "The Goldfinch" (as I did) - do not be fooled... this book is very, very different.

I'm rating it 2 stars because I can't ignore the storytelling, the power behind this book. I'm also rating it 2 stars because I'm fundamentally disappointed in this book and what I took away from it.

**UPDATE: Nope, not even the writing is going to improve my feelings, experience and/or appreciation of this "book". Time has passed and I hate it even MORE, if that's possible. Downgrade to 1 star.**
...more

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About Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara

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Hanya Yanagihara lives in New York City.

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“You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.” — 2893 likes

“...things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.” — 1862 likes

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