A Little Life in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 18, 2017 Nikki rated it it was ok

I rarely give up on books early but I found this impossible to finish. With physical books it's easy to tell how large a book a book is, although "doorstoppers" have never stopped me. Still my heart sinks a little these days when I start a new eBook and the eReader tells me that the estimated reading time is something like 13-14 hours. Still, books can draw me into their world and I actually enjoy the long read. Sadly... here the reading time/volume of the book was to its detriment.

From the beg I rarely give up on books early but I found this impossible to finish. With physical books it's easy to tell how large a book a book is, although "doorstoppers" have never stopped me. Still my heart sinks a little these days when I start a new eBook and the eReader tells me that the estimated reading time is something like 13-14 hours. Still, books can draw me into their world and I actually enjoy the long read. Sadly... here the reading time/volume of the book was to its detriment.

From the beginning on I found it hard to deal with Yanagihara's meandering style. I assume it was a conscious choice and perhaps tried to convey the idea of the narrator telling this story on a couch and going off on tangents as many will do. But I found it hard to keep track and far too many passages were far too longwinded or meaningless while not actually telling us something about the characters. They, as far as we get to know them, were bland and uninteresting to me. Either they were incredibly rich (and still living in very dingy apartments? Unlikely) or incredibly poor and badly treated. The idea of Jude's background as a victim of sexual harrassment was interesting, but it was just too much of everything - the misery of his past mingling with the misery of the present, him cutting himself, not eating, not being able to walk, I mean, give the man a break.

My interest started to fade after the first jump in time when we read how everyone had made it. It would have been interesting (perhaps) to follow these young men as they forged their various careers and chased their dreams in Manhattan. With a theatre background myself and a keen interest in Broadway, I was particularly keen on following Willem's trajectory, but instead he leaps from waiter who can't get acting jobs to successful stage and screen actor without any explanation. Same with JB, who leaps from minor amateur artist to having his own successful exhibition and offers from MoMA. Meanwhile we get endless meandering accounts of minor characters and leaps around in time.

I might have perservered if this had been a shorter book. But I couldn't face the idea of this awful meandering style and these utterly uninteresting characters stealing another 10-11 hours of my life. I'm sure many will enjoy this and get more out of it, but it wasn't for me. ...more

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Aug 02, 2018 Nikki Morse rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 17, 2016 Andy Plonka rated it it was ok

I generally like character driven novels and this certainly fills the bill, but I found out way more than I needed or wanted to know about Jude. It would be a good discussion book for a book club as the interaction between the four major characters lends itself to thoughts of motivation, effects of childhood experiences on the major players etc. I think the book could have benefited from some serious editing. I felt like I had been beaten with a baseball bat after hearing for the umpteenth time ...more

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