From the Bookshelf of Challenge Corner…

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

Start date: February 1, 2022

Finish date: February 28, 2022

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Jan 04, 2021 Priya rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2021, 52-books-in-52-weeks-2021, popsugar-reading-challenge-2021

Phew! This is simultaneously one of the most beautiful books I have read in terms of the writing and the saddest, most devastating one as well!
I have read about books inducing 'ugly crying' and this was one for me..

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was so fabulous with the emotional dialogues that it was even more heartbreaking. It was a very good book to listen to though for that reason I felt.

I kept wondering what exactly the author was actually meaning this to be..a survival story, Phew! This is simultaneously one of the most beautiful books I have read in terms of the writing and the saddest, most devastating one as well!
I have read about books inducing 'ugly crying' and this was one for me..

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was so fabulous with the emotional dialogues that it was even more heartbreaking. It was a very good book to listen to though for that reason I felt.

I kept wondering what exactly the author was actually meaning this to be..a survival story, a story of beautiful friendship, one that showed that a human being could be so damaged that he or she could never be completely healed, or ultimately just a hard hitting very real tale where suffering is more relentless than we let ourselves believe so that we can have some semblance of a happy life!

It is definitely an ode to a wonderful friendship between four individuals that lasts throughout their lives though they don't seem to have anything in common except that they all seem to be misfits..Willem, the brilliant actor, JB the petulant one who is an excellent artist, Malcolm, the earnest but eternally unsure architect and Jude, the excellent lawyer who can never bring himself to tell even those he is closest to about the trauma he was subjected to in childhood.

As they build careers, get in and out of relationships, fight and patch up they are the only constants in each other's lives. And the relationship between two of them in particular is really poignant, one that most would probably aspire to even with all the doubt and sacrifices it seems to take from both.

There is so much sadness in this tale, lots of it. It is almost as if it was decided that no one would be allowed to get away with being happy all the time just like in real life! One thing that made it bearable to read these very emotional and depressing parts was that every time it got really sad, the POV would change and we get to see the story from another perspective. What actually happened is told with some distance and time away from the situation so that you don't have to read pages and pages of it and feel even more wrecked!

Even so, it is really intense and hard hitting and sometimes i almost wished that there would be a break from reality, more of the happy moments that are peppered throughout the book, especially towards the end after which I simply didn't know what I was feeling.

It is a story with darkness and light alternating but intruding on each other all the time so that after a while you know not to hope for something to last or go in a way you think it will! The best part of it is the way in which both of these are so exquisitely done. What Jude in particular goes through, the way he thinks, his constant misgivings and battles and hope in the midst of them all, his vulnerability coupled with his determination to be strong brings a lump to the throat. He made me want to reach in and hug him all the time. That's what kept me listening through all the tears and discomfort and extreme sadness. I wanted to know more about him and his life.

Definitely not an easy book to read at all. One that has left me feeling something I can't articulate right now. If that was the objective of the author, to generate such strong feelings for the characters and the story, then she has succeeded. ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2021 Dr. Andy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: queer-rep-aromantic, queer-rep-bisexual, mental-illness-self-harm, bookclub-read, bipoc-author, read-2021, mental-illiness-suicidal-ideation, fat-character, rad-reads-2021, rad-reads-2020

THIS BOOK HURT ME AND IM NOT OKAY.

I yelled at my friend Joey the whole time reading this and we came to the conclusion that after this book we are smad (sad+mad). A Little Life made me feel way too many emotions. THE NERVE.

This book centers around four young men in college: Jude, Malcolm, JB and Willem. The paths that life took them to there, and where they went after. Jude is the center of it all, the gravity of the group-he is an enigma and a genius. Malcolm is biracial, rich and a talented ...more

7 likes · Like · see review