A Little Life in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 28, 2017 Elizabeth added it

Shelves: fiction

Beautifully written. But too depressing for me. I had to put it aside.

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Feb 11, 2016 Ryan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: borrowed, favorites, 2016, favourites-of-the-10-s

..........I need a hug.

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Jun 20, 2022 Travellinckx rated it did not like it · review of another edition

It was enchanting in the beginning. With gorgeously decorated words to form a beautifully flowery sentence. And then... Bammmmm. I regret to invest so much time and energy trying to emphatize and sympathize with the characters, trying to understand their dilemma while in the end I realize that the writer seems to enjoy to torture her characters (and the readers) for the sake of enjoying it.

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Oct 31, 2015 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: female-author, _us-new-york-city, lgbtqia

I finished this book several weeks ago, and at that time I had so much to say about it, writing a review felt overwhelming. Now that I’ve had a few weeks, many of my thoughts about the book have become a little fuzzy. But here it goes.

This book is really hard to read. It primarily centers around Jude, an adult survivor of severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, and the long term ramifications this has on his self-image and his ability to form trusting relationships. It goes into fairly graphic I finished this book several weeks ago, and at that time I had so much to say about it, writing a review felt overwhelming. Now that I’ve had a few weeks, many of my thoughts about the book have become a little fuzzy. But here it goes.

This book is really hard to read. It primarily centers around Jude, an adult survivor of severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, and the long term ramifications this has on his self-image and his ability to form trusting relationships. It goes into fairly graphic detail about the abuse, and doesn’t shy away from describing Jude’s intense self-hatred and self-mutilation in length.

As an adult, Jude becomes a successful lawyer and makes a lot of friends. His close friends are loving and selfless and would do anything for Jude, but Jude remains guarded and never talks about his past. The novel alternates between present and past, and slowly reveals the details of Jude’s childhood while exploring his relationships with his friends in the present.

In the novel, Jude’s encounters with abusers happen again and again, seemingly by chance. These plot devices started to feel contrived and the relentless depiction of Jude’s suffering started to feel manipulative and voyeuristic. Jude’s friends were slightly one-dimensional in their love for him, it almost seemed too much at times.

SPOILER ALERT

(view spoiler)

Yanagihara’s first novel The People in the Trees was simultaneously disturbing and thought provoking because she veers from both the expected and the accepted. While A Little Life didn’t veer so far from the expected, I think it did challenge the accepted to some extent, and it made me think. When I finished reading both of Yanagihara’s books, I felt compelled to read every review and every author interview I could find, just to make sense of it all. (Although more so with her first book.)

It is hard for me to decide if I should recommend this book. The writing can be raw and brutal, the book is really long and intense, and it is probably too much for some. ...more

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Dec 07, 2015 mstan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-ty, american, ipad, src-winter-2015-16

3.5 stars.

It started out wonderfully, got even more absorbing, then went downhill. For much of the last third of the book, I was going, "Really?!" ...more

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