A Little Life in Busy as a Bee Books

Jan 29, 2015 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: _own-home-library, _own-ebook, from-publisher, fiction, all-time-favorite, busy-as-a-bee-books-group, rec-ig-blogs-friends-other, edelweis-netgalley_review, arc-copy, read-in-2015

I wish I could give 10 stars on Goodreads. This book deserves far more than just 5 stars! This book has flown up to the top of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS list! This one is definitely worthy of all of the hype it's received.

This is an amazing, searing, emotional, and devastating book. It's the kind of book that makes you sob. That tears at your heart and soul. That will stay with you. I read this over a month ago and I'm still thinking about it. The characters in this novel will stay with me for I wish I could give 10 stars on Goodreads. This book deserves far more than just 5 stars! This book has flown up to the top of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS list! This one is definitely worthy of all of the hype it's received.

This is an amazing, searing, emotional, and devastating book. It's the kind of book that makes you sob. That tears at your heart and soul. That will stay with you. I read this over a month ago and I'm still thinking about it. The characters in this novel will stay with me for some time.

The story centers around a man, Jude, and his friends in NY. It's about the relationships between these people and how they love and hurt one another over time. It's about friendship, survival, tragedy and healing. Jude is a man who has been hurt in unimaginable ways and how that hurt impacts his life, his friendships and his work. If you are uncomfortable reading about child abuse or the impact of that abuse on adults, this is not the book for you. It's very raw and dark and difficult. It's not for everyone. I don't find it to be gratuitous as it really helps you to better understand the characters and their journeys. But, I would only read this one if you think you can read difficult material. The content can be, at times, very brutal. Be forewarned.

This was particularly impactful to me because I spent almost 10 years counseling domestic violence and sexual abuse survivors and this story is VERY close to the abuse one of the women that I counseled for years endured over her lifetime. This book did an amazing job of capturing what it's like to live through something so horrible as well as to care about someone who is trying to live with the lifelong affects of such abuse. I've heard folks complain that its not realistic to have endured what the character in this story does but if my work with abuse victims is any indication, I can tell you that some people do horrible things to other people - unimaginable things. And you'd be surprised how often and how much abuse victims are victimized in their lifetimes.

The characters in this novel will stay with me for some time. They are beautifully written, extremely real and just jump off the page. I came to care (and sometimes hate) them so much more than I would have expected. There were passages in this novel that literally took my breath away, made me think about things in new ways and just simply impacted me deeply. I kept re-reading some of them over and over again because they just perfectly stated something in a way that just overwhelmed me. This is one that I will re-read regularly. It's such a beautiful piece of writing and a story that just tore me up. In the way that the best novels tear you up.

I can't recommend this one highly enough. It's a truly amazing novel that just killed me ... I feel almost sad that I've finished it and will never read it again for the first time. It's difficult, heartbreaking, touching, beautiful and evocative! So worth reading ... ...more

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Mar 13, 2015 Loretta rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-own, botns-recs, 2016, diverse-reads-lgb

I'm not sure where to begin with this review.

I loved this book, in a visceral way. I read it mostly over the course of two Lost Weekends, though instead of getting drunk on alcohol, I was getting immersed in this world in an almost addictive way. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, and I imagine I will continue thinking about it in the days, and weeks, and months ahead.

The prose was beautiful, and my copy is now littered with tabs of places that I marked--sentiments that I apprec I'm not sure where to begin with this review.

I loved this book, in a visceral way. I read it mostly over the course of two Lost Weekends, though instead of getting drunk on alcohol, I was getting immersed in this world in an almost addictive way. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, and I imagine I will continue thinking about it in the days, and weeks, and months ahead.

The prose was beautiful, and my copy is now littered with tabs of places that I marked--sentiments that I appreciated, sections that moved me, philosophies that intrigued me. The novel also had a number of observations about life and making your path, specifically life in New York City (where I grew up) and Boston (where I now reside). So in certain respects, this book was made for me, or someone like me--an East Coast Big City Girl (or Guy) at heart.

More important than these observations, though, were the stories of the relationships contained within these pages. These relationships were parental, platonic, romantic, professional. But they were all emotionally true, and given the respect that such relationships deserve. One of my favorite recurring motifs was the importance of friendship, and how the phrase "just a friend" gives that relationship such short shrift. True friendships can be the most important relationships of your life and--if you are very, very lucky--every other relationship that you have, be it romantic, professional or paternal/maternal, will have a deep, deep friendship holding it together.

However, this book also had some deep flaws to it, flaws related more to the crafting of the story than to the story itself, if that makes sense.

The abuse suffered by the main protagonist is almost cartoonish by the time it is fully revealed (even though that "reveal" is not particularly surprisingly--it became clear to me early on what the rough outline of all that had happened was). It is essentially a Murphy's Law of a Bad Childhood: anything and everything bad that can happen did happen. I was not pulled out of the story by the abuse in the way that other people have described it: because it was so upsetting. Instead, I found that it pulled me out of the novel because I found these scenes excessive and unnecessary. Yes, I know we had to understand the abuse to understand the foundation of who Jude was as a character, but I thought that could have been accomplished with far more economy. I was much more fascinated by the aftermath, by the coping, but how Jude chose to live his life having experienced all these things.

I also thought one of the late in the novel "twists" extremely manipulative, in a way that allowed me to see the author pulling the strings, and trying to manipulate me to feel certain things. Now, I am well aware that every novel wants to produce feelings in its readers. However, when you can see the strings being pulled, and when the author inserts an event to make you feel things rather than letting that happen organically--that is an issue with the crafting of the novel.

And in my final complaint, which I recognize may be unique to only me, I was saddened to see that the author seemed to grow bored of Malcolm. I think his final point-of-view chapter was somewhere in the first third of the book, which I found disappointing. Though I understand that he was not the central character, and by necessity, he was going to get less "screen time" than the major players, I thought we were introduced to a foursome at the beginning of the novel and that that foursome should have continued to be a binding thread throughout the novel.

Still, these crafting issues aside, this was a superb novel in many ways. It was the kind of novel that made me think about life, and my life, and what I want to make of it, and what I'm good at and what needs improvement. That is a spectacular gift, and issues aside, I'm so very glad that I read this and I'm sure my copy will have a permanent place on my shelf.

4 stars, for now. I will likely revisit this one in the future. ...more

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Mar 24, 2015 Karli rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bee-books, 5-star-reads, amazing, nook

This book is tremendous. I love the writing, the characters it creates, the feelings it evokes and the story of life that it tells. I love how much i loved every beautiful, flawed, damaged creature written. I loved that it was over 700 pages and that I was still disappointed that it was over. This book is utterly and truly amazing, a crazy, beautiful, awful tale of love, abuse, friendship, self-loathing, art, talent and creativity. READ, READ, READ.

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Jul 18, 2015 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bee-shelf, the-readers-recommendation, read-in-2016

The most depressing book I have ever read. Ever. It is unputdownable. 814 depressing pages I couldn't stop reading until I feel asleep with the book in my hands. ...more

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Mar 24, 2015 Alison rated it it was amazing

What an amazingly emotional, poignant, heartbreaking book. I am so moved by this book. It certainly isn't for everyone, but it is unbelievably well-written, engaging, touching, and powerful. I'm already looking forward to rereading this in the future. ...more

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Jan 09, 2020 Queralt✨ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fem-asian-authors, disability

While I have to say this has been the first book I had been scared of picking up, A Little Life is nothing short of extraordinary. Harrowing and beautifully written. I know I will be thinking of A Little Life a lot in the future.

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May 16, 2015 Barb rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this one. Great characters. Four instead of five stars for two reasons: big twist was not a surprise, the story seemed to be headed that way for a while, and at a few places I felt as if the story was dragging a bit, found myself skimming. Well written and will likely stay with me for a while.

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Jan 17, 2022 Jen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don’t really know how to rate and review this book. The trauma is deep, the pain and loss is azure and deep and impacts every character and interaction in the book. But the love of these characters for each other is also deep and unwavering and real.

Jude is obviously the main character and the glue that binds everyone else together and all the narrative is built to support his relationships with everyone else but I found some of the most poignant interactions to be those between the other cha ...more

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