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Hanya Yanagihara

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A Little Life: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Hanya Yanagihara (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 80,070 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Wall Street Journal • NPR • Vanity Fair • Vogue • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Guardian • O, The Oprah Magazine • Slate • Newsday • Buzzfeed • The Economist • Newsweek • People • Kansas City Star • Shelf Awareness • Time Out New York • Huffington Post • Book Riot • Refinery29 • Bookpage • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus

“Astonishing.” —The Atlantic

“Deeply moving. . . . A wrenching portrait of the enduring grace of friendship.” —NPR

“Elemental, irreducible.” —The New Yorker

“Hypnotic. . . . An intimate, operatic friendship between four men.” —The Economist

“Capacious and consuming. . . . Immersive.” —The Boston Globe

“Beautiful.” —Los Angeles Times

“Exquisite. . . . It’s not hyperbole to call this novel a masterwork—if anything that word is simply just too little for it.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Remarkable. . . . An epic study of trauma and friendship written with such intelligence and depth of perception that it will be one of the benchmarks against which all other novels that broach those subjects (and they are legion) will be measured. . . . A Little Life announces [Yanagihara] as a major American novelist.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Utterly gripping. Wonderfully romantic and sometimes harrowing, A Little Life kept me reading late into the night, night after night.” —Edmund White

“Spellbinding . . . . An exquisitely written, complex triumph.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Drawn in extraordinary detail by incantatory prose. . . . Affecting and transcendent.” —The Washington Post

“[A Little Life] lands with a real sense of occasion: the arrival of a major new voice in fiction. . . . Yanagihara’s achievement has less to do with size . . . than with the breadth and depth of its considerable power, which speaks not to the indomitability of the spirit, but to the fragility of the self.” —Vogue

“Exquisite. . . . The book shifts from a generational portrait to something darker and more tender: an examination of the depths of human cruelty, counterbalanced by the restorative powers of friendship.” —The New Yorker

“A book unlike any other. . . . A Little Life asks serious questions about humanism and euthanasia and psychiatry and any number of the partis pris of modern western life. . . . A devastating read that will leave your heart, like the Grinch’s, a few sizes larger.” —The Guardian

“Exceedingly good.” —Newsweek

“A Little Life is unlike anything else out there. Over the top, beyond the pale and quite simply unforgettable.” —The Independent

“Piercing. . . . [Yanagihara is] an author with the talent to interrogate the basest and most beautiful extremes of human behaviour with sustained, bruising intensity.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“A brave novel. . . . Impressive and moving.” —Literary Review

“Enthralling and completely immersive. . . . Stunning.” —Daily News

About the Author

Hanya Yanagihara is the author of The People in the Trees. She lives in New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

The eleventh apartment had only one closet, but it did have a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony, from which he could see a man sitting across the way, outdoors in only a T-shirt and shorts even though it was October, smoking. Willem held up a hand in greeting to him, but the man didn’t wave back.

In the bedroom, Jude was accordioning the closet door, opening and shutting it, when Willem came in. “There’s only one closet,” he said.

“That’s okay,” Willem said. “I have nothing to put in it anyway.”

“Neither do I.” They smiled at each other. The agent from the building wandered in after them. “We’ll take it,” Jude told her.

But back at the agent’s office, they were told they couldn’t rent the apartment after all. “Why not?” Jude asked her.

“You don’t make enough to cover six months’ rent, and you don’t have anything in savings,” said the agent, suddenly terse. She had checked their credit and their bank accounts and had at last realized that there was something amiss about two men in their twenties who were not a couple and yet were trying to rent a one-bedroom apartment on a dull (but still expensive) stretch of Twenty-fifth Street. “Do you have anyone who can sign on as your guarantor? A boss? Parents?”

“Our parents are dead,” said Willem, swiftly.

The agent sighed. “Then I suggest you lower your expectations. No one who manages a well-run building is going to rent to candidates with your financial profile.” And then she stood, with an air of finality, and looked pointedly at the door.

When they told JB and Malcolm this, however, they made it into a comedy: the apartment floor became tattooed with mouse droppings, the man across the way had almost exposed himself, the agent was upset because she had been flirting with Willem and he hadn’t reciprocated.

“Who wants to live on Twenty-fifth and Second anyway,” asked JB. They were at Pho Viet Huong in Chinatown, where they met twice a month for dinner. Pho Viet Huong wasn’t very good--the pho was curiously sugary, the lime juice was soapy, and at least one of them got sick after every meal--but they kept coming, both out of habit and necessity. You could get a bowl of soup or a sandwich at Pho Viet Huong for five dollars, or you could get an entrée, which were eight to ten dollars but much larger, so you could save half of it for the next day or for a snack later that night. Only Malcolm never ate the whole of his entrée and never saved the other half either, and when he was finished eating, he put his plate in the center of the table so Willem and JB--who were always hungry--could eat the rest.

“Of course we don’t want to live at Twenty-fifth and Second, JB,” said Willem, patiently, “but we don’t really have a choice. We don’t have any money, remember?”

“I don’t understand why you don’t stay where you are,” said Malcolm, who was now pushing his mushrooms and tofu--he always ordered the same dish: oyster mushrooms and braised tofu in a treacly brown sauce--around his plate, as Willem and JB eyed it.

“Well, I can’t,” Willem said. “Remember?” He had to have explained this to Malcolm a dozen times in the last three months. “Merritt’s boyfriend’s moving in, so I have to move out.”

“But why do you have to move out?”

“Because it’s Merritt’s name on the lease, Malcolm!” said JB.

“Oh,” Malcolm said. He was quiet. He often forgot what he considered inconsequential details, but he also never seemed to mind when people grew impatient with him for forgetting. “Right.” He moved the mushrooms to the center of the table. “But you, Jude--”

“I can’t stay at your place forever, Malcolm. Your parents are going to kill me at some point.”

“My parents love you.”

“That’s nice of you to say. But they won’t if I don’t move out, and soon.”

Malcolm was the only one of the four of them who lived at home, and as JB liked to say, if he had Malcolm’s home, he would live at home too. It wasn’t as if Malcolm’s house was particularly grand--it was, in fact, creaky and ill-kept, and Willem had once gotten a splinter simply by running his hand up its banister--but it was large: a real Upper East Side town house. Malcolm’s sister, Flora, who was three years older than him, had moved out of the basement apartment recently, and Jude had taken her place as a short-term solution: Eventually, Malcolm’s parents would want to reclaim the unit to convert it into offices for his mother’s literary agency, which meant Jude (who was finding the flight of stairs that led down to it too difficult to navigate anyway) had to look for his own apartment.

And it was natural that he would live with Willem; they had been roommates throughout college. In their first year, the four of them had shared a space that consisted of a cinder-blocked common room, where sat their desks and chairs and a couch that JB’s aunts had driven up in a U-Haul, and a second, far tinier room, in which two sets of bunk beds had been placed. This room had been so narrow that Malcolm and Jude, lying in the bottom bunks, could reach out and grab each other’s hands. Malcolm and JB had shared one of the units; Jude and Willem had shared the other.

“It’s blacks versus whites,” JB would say.

“Jude’s not white,” Willem would respond.

“And I’m not black,” Malcolm would add, more to annoy JB than because he believed it.

“Well,” JB said now, pulling the plate of mushrooms toward him with the tines of his fork, “I’d say you could both stay with me, but I think you’d fucking hate it.” JB lived in a massive, filthy loft in Little Italy, full of strange hallways that led to unused, oddly shaped cul-de-sacs and unfinished half rooms, the Sheetrock abandoned mid-construction, which belonged to another person they knew from college. Ezra was an artist, a bad one, but he didn’t need to be good because, as JB liked to remind them, he would never have to work in his entire life. And not only would he never have to work, but his children’s children’s children would never have to work: They could make bad, unsalable, worthless art for generations and they would still be able to buy at whim the best oils they wanted, and impractically large lofts in downtown Manhattan that they could trash with their bad architectural decisions, and when they got sick of the artist’s life--as JB was convinced Ezra someday would--all they would need to do is call their trust officers and be awarded an enormous lump sum of cash of an amount that the four of them (well, maybe not Malcolm) could never dream of seeing in their lifetimes. In the meantime, though, Ezra was a useful person to know, not only because he let JB and a few of his other friends from school stay in his apartment--at any time, there were four or five people burrowing in various corners of the loft--but because he was a good-natured and basically generous person, and liked to throw excessive parties in which copious amounts of food and drugs and alcohol were available for free.

“Hold up,” JB said, putting his chopsticks down. “I just realized--there’s someone at the magazine renting some place for her aunt. Like, just on the verge of Chinatown.”

“How much is it?” asked Willem.

“Probably nothing--she didn’t even know what to ask for it. And she wants someone in there that she knows.”

“Do you think you could put in a good word?”

“Better--I’ll introduce you. Can you come by the office tomorrow?”

Jude sighed. “I won’t be able to get away.” He looked at Willem.

“Don’t worry--I can. What time?”

“Lunchtime, I guess. One?”

“I’ll be there.”

Willem was still hungry, but he let JB eat the rest of the mushrooms. Then they all waited around for a bit; sometimes Malcolm ordered jackfruit ice cream, the one consistently good thing on the menu, ate two bites, and then stopped, and he and JB would finish the rest. But this time he didn’t order the ice cream, and so they asked for the bill so they could study it and divide it to the dollar.

The next day, Willem met JB at his office. JB worked as a receptionist at a small but influential magazine based in SoHo that covered the downtown art scene. This was a strategic job for him; his plan, as he’d explained to Willem one night, was that he’d try to befriend one of the editors there and then convince him to feature him in the magazine. He estimated this taking about six months, which meant he had three more to go.

JB wore a perpetual expression of mild disbelief while at his job, both that he should be working at all and that no one had yet thought to recognize his special genius. He was not a good receptionist. Although the phones rang more or less constantly, he rarely picked them up; when any of them wanted to get through to him (the cell phone reception in the building was inconsistent), they had to follow a special code of ringing twice, hanging up, and then ringing again. And even then he sometimes failed to answer--his hands were busy beneath his desk, combing and plaiting snarls of hair from a black plastic trash bag he kept at his feet.

JB was going through, as he put it, his hair phase. Recently he had decided to take a break from painting in favor of making sculptures from black hair. Each of them had spent an exhausting weekend following JB from barbershop to beauty shop in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan, waiting outside as JB went in to ask the owners for any sweepings or cuttings they might have, and then lugging an increasingly awkward bag of hair down the street after him. His early pieces had included The Mace, a tennis ball that he had de-fuzzed, sliced in half, and filled with sand before coating it in glue and rolling it around and around in a carpet of hair so that the bristles moved like seaweed underwater, and “The Kwotidien,” in which he covered various household items--a stapler; a spatula; a teacup--in pelts of hair. Now he was working on a large-scale project that he refused to discuss with them except in snatches, but it involved the combing out and braiding together of many pieces in order to make one apparently endless rope of frizzing black hair. The previous Friday he had lured them over with the promise of pizza and beer to help him braid, but after many hours of tedious work, it became clear that there was no pizza and beer forthcoming, and they had left, a little irritated but not terribly surprised.

They were all bored with the hair project, although Jude--alone among them--thought that the pieces were lovely and would someday be considered significant. In thanks, JB had given Jude a hair-covered hairbrush, but then had reclaimed the gift when it looked like Ezra’s father’s friend might be interested in buying it (he didn’t, but JB never returned the hairbrush to Jude). The hair project had proved difficult in other ways as well; another evening, when the three of them had somehow been once again conned into going to Little Italy and combing out more hair, Malcolm had commented that the hair stank. Which it did: not of anything distasteful but simply the tangy metallic scent of unwashed scalp. But JB had thrown one of his mounting tantrums, and had called Malcolm a self-hating Negro and an Uncle Tom and a traitor to the race, and Malcolm, who very rarely angered but who angered over accusations like this, had dumped his wine into the nearest bag of hair and gotten up and stamped out. Jude had hurried, the best he could, after Malcolm, and Willem had stayed to handle JB. And although the two of them reconciled the next day, in the end Willem and Jude felt (unfairly, they knew) slightly angrier at Malcolm, since the next weekend they were back in Queens, walking from barbershop to barbershop, trying to replace the bag of hair that he had ruined.

“How’s life on the black planet?” Willem asked JB now.

“Black,” said JB, stuffing the plait he was untangling back into the bag. “Let’s go; I told Annika we’d be there at one thirty.” The phone on his desk began to ring.

“Don’t you want to get that?”

“They’ll call back.”

As they walked downtown, JB complained. So far, he had concentrated most of his seductive energies on a senior editor named Dean, whom they all called DeeAnn. They had been at a party, the three of them, held at one of the junior editor’s parents’ apartment in the Dakota, in which art-hung room bled into art-hung room. As JB talked with his coworkers in the kitchen, Malcolm and Willem had walked through the apartment together (Where had Jude been that night? Working, probably), looking at a series of Edward Burtynskys hanging in the guest bedroom, a suite of water towers by the Bechers mounted in four rows of five over the desk in the den, an enormous Gursky floating above the half bookcases in the library, and, in the master bedroom, an entire wall of Diane Arbuses, covering the space so thoroughly that only a few centimeters of blank wall remained at the top and bottom. They had been admiring a picture of two sweet-faced girls with Down syndrome playing for the camera in their too-tight, too-childish bathing suits, when Dean had approached them. He was a tall man, but he had a small, gophery, pockmarked face that made him appear feral and untrustworthy.

They introduced themselves, explained that they were here because they were JB’s friends. Dean told them that he was one of the senior editors at the magazine, and that he handled all the arts coverage.

“Ah,” Willem said, careful not to look at Malcolm, whom he did not trust not to react. JB had told them that he had targeted the arts editor as his potential mark; this must be him.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Dean asked them, waving a hand at the Arbuses.

“Never,” Willem said. “I love Diane Arbus.”

Dean stiffened, and his little features seemed to gather themselves into a knot in the center of his little face. “It’s DeeAnn.”

“What?”

“DeeAnn. You pronounce her name ‘DeeAnn.’ ”

They had barely been able to get out of the room without laughing. “DeeAnn!” JB had said later, when they told him the story. “Christ! What a pretentious little shit.”

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00N6PCZO0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor (March 10, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 10, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1.6 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 833 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,711 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #11 in Asian American & Pacific Islander Literature (Books)
- #31 in Contemporary Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.5 80,070 ratings

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Hanya Yanagihara lives in New York City.

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Customers find the book relatable and well-written. They appreciate the tender storytelling and emotional depth of the book. Readers describe it as heartwarming and emotionally intense. The characters are described as fully realized with a depth of personality. However, some find the book too long, while others find it riveting and thought-provoking. Opinions differ on the story's impact, with some finding it riveting and compelling, while others consider it gut-wrenching.

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Readability Writing quality Heartwarming Character development Heartbreaking story Sadness Abuse Length

1,755 customers mention "Readability"1,717 positive38 negative

Customers find the book engaging. They praise the author's writing style as exceptional and complex. The content is left to the imagination, and the book effectively sets itself in a dream parallel.

"...of writing and prose fiction and a work which will haunt the reader for a long time...." Read more

"...Employing use of a dense, particularized writing style, Yanagihara's prose is architectural, cerebral, and drawn out at a pace that is like molasses..." Read more

"...The characters are meticulously crafted, each flawed yet relatable, each carrying their own burdens...." Read more

"...The characters are so vividly human, so deeply flawed yet so achingly real, that they stay with you long after you’ve closed the book...." Read more

1,677 customers mention "Writing quality"1,234 positive443 negative

Customers appreciate the writing quality. They find the connections tenderly written, even in the most devastating moments. Readers praise the storytelling skills and insights into fragile emotions. They also enjoy the deep expressions of emotions, describing the book as a masterpiece with an unadulterated childlike quality.

"...Due to her immense and encompassing narrative skills, readers will eventually brace themselves so that whenever a horrifying revelation is made..." Read more

"...Employing use of a dense, particularized writing style, Yanagihara's prose is architectural, cerebral, and drawn out at a pace that is like molasses..." Read more

"...Would I recommend this book? I truly don’t know. Reading it feels intensely personal, almost too raw to share...." Read more

"...These connections especially are written with such tenderness that even in the most devastating moments, there is an aching reminder of the..." Read more

798 customers mention "Heartwarming"792 positive6 negative

Customers find the book engaging and emotional. They say it takes them deep into the characters' personalities and relationships, making them feel them in their souls. The prose is enchanting, and the story makes readers feel so much. Readers appreciate the characters' backgrounds, introspections, and streams of consciousness.

"...The increasingly close friendship between Jude and Willem with both of them at the zenith of their careers is complex—filled paradoxically with the..." Read more

"...Yet, its intimacy and unflinching honesty are unparalleled. Would I recommend this book? I truly don’t know...." Read more

"A Little Life is such an impactful novel—it is a visceral, unflinching exploration of the human condition...." Read more

"...I felt everything so strongly and will never forget this story. It has etched itself onto me and will always be part of me...." Read more

741 customers mention "Character development"576 positive165 negative

Customers enjoy the rich character development in the book. They find the adult characters engaging and relatable, with depth and personality. The four protagonists are compelling from the start. Readers feel immersed in the characters' world through vivid dialogue and writing quality.

"...The author’s characters are real to life, the dialogue is vivid and genuine, and the quality of the writing as well as the tone of the novel is..." Read more

"...From page one, I found the four protagonists to be engaging, but forebodingly so, where I immediately knew that there will be a lot to unpack in the..." Read more

"...The characters are meticulously crafted, each flawed yet relatable, each carrying their own burdens...." Read more

"...The characters are so vividly human, so deeply flawed yet so achingly real, that they stay with you long after you’ve closed the book...." Read more

1,950 customers mention "Heartbreaking story"1,228 positive722 negative

Customers have different views on the story. Some find it riveting, compelling, and an emotional rollercoaster worth reading. Others describe it as a tragic and difficult story about loss, grief, pain, and suffering. The content is described as disturbing and unrelenting throughout.

"...'s setting is contemporary, Yanagihara tells it in an odd but effective flashback mixed with present day style where the context of time is always..." Read more

"...The characters are so vividly human, so deeply flawed yet so achingly real, that they stay with you long after you’ve closed the book...." Read more

"...most of Jude’s life is a series of unrelenting, dreadful, terrifying, shattering lows and betrayals accompanied by self-destructive impulses which..." Read more

"...I will never forget Jude, Willem, Malcom or JB. Their unconditional love for one another (even during their fallouts) was magical...." Read more

857 customers mention "Sadness"295 positive562 negative

Customers have different views on the book's sadness. Some find it emotional and inspiring, while others say it's depressing and not for the faint of heart.

"...Unfortunately, most of Jude’s life is a series of unrelenting, dreadful, terrifying, shattering lows and betrayals accompanied by self-destructive..." Read more

"...(in terms of racial background and sexual orientation), emotionally evocative. Sensitive portrayal of the long term impacts of trauma...." Read more

"...Upon completing this novel, I was fatigued, drained, and spent of my emotions because I have never equally hated and admired a book so much in my..." Read more

"...It’s not for the faint of heart, and I can see how it might push someone already in a dark place further into shadow...." Read more

271 customers mention "Abuse"83 positive188 negative

Customers have different views on the abuse in the book. Some find it confronting and showing a different angle, while others find the descriptions horrific and brutal in their honest portrayal of mental illness, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and child abuse.

"...The story is achingly real—so grounded in its unrelenting, harsh reality that it almost strips away the protective veil of fiction...." Read more

"...The childhood abuse is so pervasive, so widespread, so extreme, that at one point I almost abandoned the book...." Read more

"...doesn’t shy away from the darkest corners of humanity—it confronts abuse, self-loathing, and lifelong scars within Jude’s life that leaves with an..." Read more

"...Secondly, it is brutal in its honest, unflinching portrayal of mental illness...." Read more

419 customers mention "Length"99 positive320 negative

Customers find the book too long. They say it's over 700 pages and at times infuriating.

"...It is a difficult read in more ways than one. Firstly, it is 800 pages long with very little action, with large chunks of paragraphs detailing the..." Read more

"...It is, first of all, a long book, over 800 pages. But I read it anyway. It is, often, a very emotional read...." Read more

"...My only complaints about the book are I truly feel it was too long and too repetitive, as well as the punctuation through me off quite a bit because..." Read more

"This very long, well-written and researched novel deserves recognition...." Read more

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Eclectic Reader
“Lost to the World”
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2020
Verified Purchase

I’ll be blunt upfront. A LITTLE LIFE (2015) by Hanya Yanagihara is the most soul-wrenching novel I have perhaps ever read. In the novel Yanagihara follows in minute detail the lives of four men who become friends, “a clique,” in college and continue to be close into their late fifties. JB Marion begins his work life as a “receptionist at a small but influential magazine based in SoHo that covered the downtown art scene,” with ambitions to become an artist. Fatherless since he was three, JB is of Haitian descent, tends toward being overweight, and is gay. Willem Ragnarsson, handsome and “liked by everyone” starts out as a waiter, but has his eye set on becoming a professional actor on stage and screen. In ways, Malcolm Irvine is the outlier of the group, still living at home with his parents who are a couple of mixed-race. He is wealthy and determined to become an architect. Malcolm appears to be oblivious of his appeal to others, even naïve, somewhat confused about his sexuality, and unmindful of his financial situation although generous to his friends and others when they are in need. At the core of the four friends is Jude St. Francis who holds the group together—not so much by what he does even though he is considerably bright, loyal, and hard-working, as well as determined to become a prosecutor, but because his friends care about him and Jude has needs. Parentless and with a mysterious past all of which he never speaks about and never having “a girlfriend or a boyfriend,” Jude has trouble with his legs and is frequently in pain. Although he never complains nor asks for help, his friends are very aware of his situation and go out of their way to assist Jude in as tactful of a manner as possible.

Mainly set in New York City, as A LITTLE LIFE unfolds, Yanagihara brings into the fold other characters of importance including a doctor, Andy Contractor, and a former law professor, Harold Stein and his wife Judy, all of whom play important roles in in the novel, as well as a host of minor characters. It is, however, the four friends who remain central to the story, especially Jude and Willem, roommates in college and who remain the closest of the friends. The bulk of Yanagihara’s novel is told in chronicle order, but as the novel progresses, there are more flashbacks and memories, some of which get repeated with added detail as they surface, most of them revolving around Jude who becomes more and more the novel’s central character.

When thinking about tragic characters in prose fiction, no one comes my mind as being more tragic than Jude Fawley from Thomas Hardy’s JUDE THE OBSCURE (1894/1895) which may be the motivation for the author’s name for her main character—Jude, “the patron saint of lost causes.” Although readers soon come to the realization Jude is a physically and emotionally scarred individual, Yanagihara’s revelations about the details of Jude’s history are painfully slow in coming—mirroring the complexity and rawness of those very memories which haunt and torment Jude. They are memories which have shaped, or rather distorted, his life. In one flashback the author reveals twenty-five years in the past, Ana, Jude's now deceased “first and only social worker” warning Jude during a hospital stay, “…you have to talk about these things while they’re fresh. Or you’ll never talk about them… and it’s going to fester inside you, and you’re always going to think you’re to blame. You’ll be wrong, of course, but you’ll always think it.”

There are relatively few highs in Jude’s life and when they occur, the reader is bound to find them tearful moments of joy. The increasingly close friendship between Jude and Willem with both of them at the zenith of their careers is complex—filled paradoxically with the bounty which human relationships can contain along with enormous peril. Unfortunately, most of Jude’s life is a series of unrelenting, dreadful, terrifying, shattering lows and betrayals accompanied by self-destructive impulses which become worse and worse, adding to a man’s already burdensome childhood, youth, and life-long post-traumatic stress. Jude’s is a portrait of suffering beyond comprehension and the brutal perpetrators of his torments throughout his life are the epitome of unfathomable, monstrous human behavior.

Thus, A LITTLE LIFE does not make for easy reading. It is emotionally jolting and at the same time riveting. So vivid are Yanagihara’s expose of the quartet of characters, the reader becomes one with them, making it a quintet. The author’s characters are real to life, the dialogue is vivid and genuine, and the quality of the writing as well as the tone of the novel is unswerving. Although Yanagihara’s central characters meet with sometimes staggering personal and professional successes, there are also failures and tragedies, both past and present, and always a dire cloud which encircles them all, especially Jude. Due to her immense and encompassing narrative skills, readers will eventually brace themselves so that whenever a horrifying revelation is made about Jude’s secret past or his present, there is likely worse to come.

A narrative trick Yanagihara pulls a little over a quarter of the way into the novel and again at the half-way point, moving from an omniscient narrator to what clearly is a first person although not readily identifiable narrator, is bound to strike the reader as both curious and possibly even portentous. It is left up to the reader to recognize and interpret for themselves the meaning of the author’s temporary changes in point of view. She does the same switch near the book’s conclusion which eventually brings the work to its shocking climax and even more emotionally numbing, traumatic end.

Clearly, A LITTLE LIFE is not for everyone. even though the novel is a modern masterpiece of writing and prose fiction and a work which will haunt the reader for a long time. The most resilient reader may very likely find there are times when they simply must close the book and exit the bleakness of the world Yanagihara creates before picking the book up again. Others may discover there are times when they simply want to throw the book across the room. Some readers may find the book impossible to finish because it is so emotionally draining. Regardless of the reader’s reaction to the novel, A LITTLE LIFE is an incredible accomplishment and a work which haunt the reader for a long time.

[NOTES: (1) A LITTLE LIFE has recently been declared one of “The 20 Best Novels of the Decade” by Emily Temple for The Literary Hub on December 23, 2019. (2) The book’s cover photo is from a series of photos taken in the 1960s by Peter Hujar. The photo is titled “Orgasmic Man.” The photo is purposefully ambiguous. Is the man depicted experiencing joy or pain? (3) A stage adaptation of A LITTLE LIFE ran in Amsterdam in 2018 and 2019 with limited runs, only, most of which were in Dutch.]

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vale
tragic and beautiful <3
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2024
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A Little Life is such an impactful novel—it is a visceral, unflinching exploration of the human condition. From the moment you step into the world of Jude, Willem, Malcolm, and JB, you are swept into a story so raw and consuming. Bearing witness to the profound and often brutal complexities of life, love, and trauma.

At its core, this book has such an impactful way of creating emotional storytelling. The writing has such intimacy and depth that you feel every ounce of Jude's pain and every rare flicker of his joy. The narrative doesn’t shy away from the darkest corners of humanity—it confronts abuse, self-loathing, and lifelong scars within Jude’s life that leaves with an honesty that is both harrowing and beautiful. The weight of these themes is relentless, but it is precisely this relentlessness that gives the story its power. Jude's relationships—especially his bond with Willem—are the heart of the book, offering a fragile yet radiant hope amidst the despair. These connections especially are written with such tenderness that even in the most devastating moments, there is an aching reminder of the redemptive power of love and friendship.

The characters are so vividly human, so deeply flawed yet so achingly real, that they stay with you long after you’ve closed the book. I feel that it challenges you and myself to look beyond the surface of pain and see the resilience and complexity of the human spirit.

This is not an easy book— nor an easy read. I definitely don’t recommend it if you are weak-hearted. (Still i am recovering from the heartache i felt) and I cried, cried and cried like never before (Evident by the tears on the pages) But it is also a testament to the endurance of the human soul, even when burdened by the heaviest of tragedies. For those well equipped enough to face its emotional depths, A Little Life is a literary experience that will change you in ways you never anticipated. It is devastating, transformative, and ultimately unforgettable.

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vale

tragic and beautiful <3

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2024
A Little Life is such an impactful novel—it is a visceral, unflinching exploration of the human condition. From the moment you step into the world of Jude, Willem, Malcolm, and JB, you are swept into a story so raw and consuming. Bearing witness to the profound and often brutal complexities of life, love, and trauma.

At its core, this book has such an impactful way of creating emotional storytelling. The writing has such intimacy and depth that you feel every ounce of Jude's pain and every rare flicker of his joy. The narrative doesn’t shy away from the darkest corners of humanity—it confronts abuse, self-loathing, and lifelong scars within Jude’s life that leaves with an honesty that is both harrowing and beautiful. The weight of these themes is relentless, but it is precisely this relentlessness that gives the story its power. Jude's relationships—especially his bond with Willem—are the heart of the book, offering a fragile yet radiant hope amidst the despair. These connections especially are written with such tenderness that even in the most devastating moments, there is an aching reminder of the redemptive power of love and friendship.

The characters are so vividly human, so deeply flawed yet so achingly real, that they stay with you long after you’ve closed the book. I feel that it challenges you and myself to look beyond the surface of pain and see the resilience and complexity of the human spirit.

This is not an easy book— nor an easy read. I definitely don’t recommend it if you are weak-hearted. (Still i am recovering from the heartache i felt) and I cried, cried and cried like never before (Evident by the tears on the pages) But it is also a testament to the endurance of the human soul, even when burdened by the heaviest of tragedies. For those well equipped enough to face its emotional depths, A Little Life is a literary experience that will change you in ways you never anticipated. It is devastating, transformative, and ultimately unforgettable.

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Ketan Bhimani
A Heart-Wrenching Journey of Friendship and Trauma
Reviewed in Canada on October 25, 2024
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A Little Life is an emotionally intense and beautifully written novel that delves deep into the lives of four friends navigating love, loss, and the shadows of their pasts. Hanya Yanagihara’s portrayal of suffering and resilience is both poignant and unforgettable. The characters are so vividly drawn that their joys and heartbreaks feel deeply personal. While the themes can be heavy, the book's exploration of friendship and loyalty is incredibly powerful. Be prepared for an emotional ride, but it’s one that stays with you long after the last page.

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Victor
Recomiendo
Reviewed in Mexico on October 7, 2024
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El libro es muy bueno e leído como 50 páginas y todo muy bien no hubo problemas, y llegó en excelentes condiciones, el envío fue rápido, simplemente una buena compra.

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Kethryn
Bom livro
Reviewed in Brazil on April 22, 2024
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Livro entregue em perfeito estado. Infelizmente, a qualidade é muito inferior se comparada aos livros nacionais. As capas são moles e as folhas lembram papel de jornal. Porém, já comprei ciente disso.

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Kethryn

Bom livro

Reviewed in Brazil on April 22, 2024
Livro entregue em perfeito estado. Infelizmente, a qualidade é muito inferior se comparada aos livros nacionais. As capas são moles e as folhas lembram papel de jornal. Porém, já comprei ciente disso.

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Ürünüm teslim edilmedi
Kitap hakkında
Reviewed in Turkey on February 26, 2025
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Daha okumadım Umuyorum ki güzel bir kitaptır☺️✌🏻

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BW
Tief bewegend!
Reviewed in Germany on January 9, 2025
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Ich war lange um die Originalfassung herumgeschlichen und ließ sie dann ein paar Jahre bei mir zu Hause liegen, denn ich hatte großen Respekt vor dem Umfang und wollte dieses Buch wirklich in Ruhe lesen. Das habe ich dann im letzten Sommer geschafft - aber die Geschichte hat auch mich geschafft:

Die Geschichte von Jude ist wirklich herzzerreißend - auch wenn man über den gesamten Roman hinweg immer nur häppchenweise erfährt, was ihm passiert ist, ahnt man es im Grunde schon. Und es ist herzzerreißend zu sehen, wie sehr das nicht nur ihn selbst prägt, sondern über die ganzen Jahre hinweg auch sein gesamtes Umfeld.

Ich habe mich gefragt, ob dieser Roman auf einer wahren Geschichte beruht - und wenn nicht, ob es wirklich nötig ist, tragische Missbrauchsgeschichten - letztlich zu Unterhaltungszwecken - in diesem Ausmaß zu überzeichnen. Darüber muss ich noch nachdenken.

Was mich aber wirklich überrascht hat: Im Lauf des Lesens ließ meine Sympathie für Jude bei allem Mitgefühl langsam nach. Und vielleicht unterscheidet das diesen Roman von anderen "schön-tragischen" Geschichten:

Jude ist so gefangen in seinem Schicksal, dass er auch gegenüber seinen Lieben im Grunde keine echte Empathie mehr aufbringen kann, sondern sich ständig um sich selbst dreht:

Statt sich z.B. als Anwalt für missbrauchte Kinder einzusetzen, arbeitet er in einer Wirtschaftskanzlei; statt sich ernsthaft für seine Freunde und deren Sorgen zu interessieren, schafft er es nicht, J.B. einen kleinen Fehltritt zu verzeihen (während er sich auf der anderen Seite auf eine lebensgefährliche Affaire mit einem brutalen Choleriker einlässt); statt Willem ziehen zu lassen, schafft er es nicht, sich aus dessen Beziehung mit einer Frau herauszuhalten; als sich abzeichnet, dass sein Arzt sich aus familiären Gründen von ihm verabschieden muss, hat er keinen Raum für dessen Motive, sondern sieht nur seinen eigenen Verlust. Auch am Ende der Geschichte wird das nicht besser - aber hier möchte ich nicht spoilern.

Sich in J.B. hineinzufühlen, die Motive seines Arztes nachzuvollziehen, andere zu fragen, wie es ihnen geht, ihnen seine eigene Hilfe anzubieten, für sie da zu sein, zu erkennen, dass auch er sie verletzen kann - zu alldem scheint Jude nicht in der Lage.

Statt dessen sieht und beurteilt er seine Bezugspersonen fast ausschließlich danach, ob sie ihm gut tun, ob sie ihn verletzen, ob er sie braucht oder vielleicht gerade nicht erträgt. Vielleicht ungewollt übt er so eine unglaubliche Macht über seine Lieben aus, deren Leben zunehmend von der ständigen Sorge um sein Wohlbefinden geprägt ist.

Am Ende ist es ein zum Scheitern verurteilter Kampf um die Rettung eines geliebten Menschen, der im Grunde nicht gerettet werden will.

Insgesamt ein unglaublich mitreißender Roman - für den man allerdings viel Zeit, gute Nerven und einen freien Kopf mitbringen sollte.

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