Demis’s answer to “can anyone grasp the years it took place between?” > Likes and Comments
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Totally agreed on this. Btw, does anyone know the age difference between Harold and Jude? Is it about 25 yrs?
It feels like it's about that - do we ever get an exact age for Harold at any point? Jude's age gets mentioned here and there. (But it feels like you're probably about right, from memory)
It must be 25 years, yes. On page 156, part 2 of The Postman, Harold says/writes (to Willem) "You were twenty-four when we met, which would have made me forty-seven. (Jesus)." And Willem is two years older than Jude, right?
Demis, well, deliberate ambiguity is fine if there is a point. If, for example, this is a mystery and time ambiguity is important to the plot. Otherwise, it's just pretentious, I think.
Maybe. Give it some time though - I felt like the effect worked well by the end of the book, once the passage of time had (apparently) been so great. I didn't mind world/cultural history being irrelevant to the human dramas - particularly set in NYC, it was refreshing to have characters spanning decades but not needing to acknowledge things like 9/11 in ways that would then detract from other elements of the plot. I suppose it's a fine like to walk so far as pretension is concerned (I didn't find it so TBH), but I wouldn't go so far as to say effect was without a point. I'm sure someone has asked her that question in an interview somewhere - I'll have to find her answer...
Demis, I couldn't agree with you more. I was thinking about the same thing - it's a haunting story of abuse, Complex PTSD, love, and friendship. This book was an incredible read.
I agree with this. the entire book as I read it (which did take quite some time) felt as immediate and electric as anything I have experienced in the present moments of my life
I tend to respond with skepticism when people say things like "the characters never left my mind" or "I could not put it down" ... this book, I legitimately had to emotionally prepare myself at times to "enter into the world" of the book ... but that never made me sad, because I truly did love the individuals -- and the world -- Yanagihara built
I do still think of them from time to time, all of the friends, but moreso in the context of "well, if _______ could ________, then maybe I could also" than in the way folks normally discuss novel characters
I am able to envision myself in their places and this gives me courage. it is remarkable to me (28 years old) that this continues to be true throughout the book (which seems to span the characters's entire lives), as this is normally not an experience I am able to obtain from "adult" marketed fiction
thus the title, I feel, is a perfect choice... life is long while we are living it, brief when we look back. and probably electrically brief if one always inhabits one's present moment
Totally agree, Alex! Electric is a great way to describe that feeling... :) :)
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Kristen
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Aug 28, 2015 01:53AM
Totally agreed on this. Btw, does anyone know the age difference between Harold and Jude? Is it about 25 yrs?
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It feels like it's about that - do we ever get an exact age for Harold at any point? Jude's age gets mentioned here and there. (But it feels like you're probably about right, from memory)
It must be 25 years, yes. On page 156, part 2 of The Postman, Harold says/writes (to Willem) "You were twenty-four when we met, which would have made me forty-seven. (Jesus)." And Willem is two years older than Jude, right?
Demis, well, deliberate ambiguity is fine if there is a point. If, for example, this is a mystery and time ambiguity is important to the plot. Otherwise, it's just pretentious, I think.
Maybe. Give it some time though - I felt like the effect worked well by the end of the book, once the passage of time had (apparently) been so great. I didn't mind world/cultural history being irrelevant to the human dramas - particularly set in NYC, it was refreshing to have characters spanning decades but not needing to acknowledge things like 9/11 in ways that would then detract from other elements of the plot. I suppose it's a fine like to walk so far as pretension is concerned (I didn't find it so TBH), but I wouldn't go so far as to say effect was without a point. I'm sure someone has asked her that question in an interview somewhere - I'll have to find her answer...
Demis, I couldn't agree with you more. I was thinking about the same thing - it's a haunting story of abuse, Complex PTSD, love, and friendship. This book was an incredible read.
i felt as if the time period was pretty heavily apparent all the way through
I agree with this. the entire book as I read it (which did take quite some time) felt as immediate and electric as anything I have experienced in the present moments of my life
I tend to respond with skepticism when people say things like "the characters never left my mind" or "I could not put it down" ... this book, I legitimately had to emotionally prepare myself at times to "enter into the world" of the book ... but that never made me sad, because I truly did love the individuals -- and the world -- Yanagihara built
I do still think of them from time to time, all of the friends, but moreso in the context of "well, if _______ could ________, then maybe I could also" than in the way folks normally discuss novel characters
I am able to envision myself in their places and this gives me courage. it is remarkable to me (28 years old) that this continues to be true throughout the book (which seems to span the characters's entire lives), as this is normally not an experience I am able to obtain from "adult" marketed fiction
thus the title, I feel, is a perfect choice... life is long while we are living it, brief when we look back. and probably electrically brief if one always inhabits one's present moment
Totally agree, Alex! Electric is a great way to describe that feeling... :) :)
