Has anyone read A Little Life?

[Borisapillar 7,786]

The end of that book had me cackling

[Roughhouse Dandy 7,724]

Oop. A lot of controversy I see. Time to read this thing 👀

[PMM 2,473]

this is my favorite novel from the genes of literature. i still appreciate the beauty of it overtime

[Murakami27 20]

A lot of rage surfaces when I see A Little Life. I absolutely hate this book with a passion. I have never hated a book this much. I had 200 pages left and I just rage quit. 

But then I forced myself to finish it because I didn’t want to give it that power over me. I know, I’m being dramatic.

The book was sold as the story of 4 friends, but 2 of them literally just disappear for much of the book midway. It was mostly about Jude and Willem. It had me hooked for the first 1/3 and I couldn’t put it down. I felt for Jude and everything he had to go through. I cried and shed many tears. Then I started to feel manipulated by the writer. 
 

It got so ridiculous by the end that it was literally comically. I actually had to laugh at what was happening in the last 200 pages. A mad doctor? Of course. Hanya might as well had continued with torturing Jude by having him abducted by aliens and experimented on by that point. 
 

And it was super frustrating that everyone around Jude did absolutely nothing to help him because they were scared he would cut them off. Don’t get me started on Andy and Harold. Just pathetic. 
 

It’s a divisive book. It’s either you like it or you don’t. And I hate this with a passion. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Murakami27

[Bobina 1,084]

Yes. This book was beautifully written. There's no doubt that she is an extremely talented writer. But after a while all the horrible things that just kept happening become too much to the point it was almost numbing. 

[clementine 239]

12 minutes ago, Murakami27 said:

Then I started to feel manipulated by the writer. 

I have such weird feelings about this too. wtf is her problem???? what message is she sending??

18 minutes ago, Murakami27 said:

And it was super frustrating that everyone around Jude did absolutely nothing to help him because they were scared he would cut them off. Don’t get me started on Andy and Harold. Just pathetic. 

tw:

Spoiler

idk how I'm supposed to feel because unfortunately I am a victim of childhood sexual abuse (idk how relevant that is to my feelings and I start to feel like I'm complaining or something because I never went through anything as horrible as Jude did) but still this book is not sending the right message. I hate that throughout the book the people that are supposed to care for him only half help him. wtf Andy????

[Murakami27 20]

2 minutes ago, clementine said:

I have such weird feelings about this too. wtf is her problem???? what message is she sending??

tw:

  Reveal hidden contents

idk how I'm supposed to feel because unfortunately I am a victim of childhood sexual abuse (idk how relevant that is to my feelings and I start to feel like I'm complaining or something because I never went through anything as horrible as Jude did) but still this book is not sending the right message. I hate that throughout the book the people that are supposed to care for him only half help him. wtf Andy????

I believe a lot of it was intentional by the writer. It's been a while since I read her interviews on this, but all the misery inflicted on Jude is by design. This was said in her New Yorker interview: "Yanagihara told me that she wanted the story to feel like a relentless piling on." Well, let's just say she achieved that.

First, I'm sorry to read you had to go through that. Your feelings and opinions are most definitely valid. One should hope no one has ever gone through what Jude did in the book. It should be noted that Yanagihara has said she did no research on abuse and sexual assault before writing A Little Life. I don't know if a writer has the obligation to be an expert in what they write, especially in fiction. But I think when a book deals with such heavy and sensitive subject matter, you would hope the writer to treat it with some care. Her writing on the subject matter is bleak and hopeless and I don't wish anyone who isn't mentally strong enough to read this. A friend had warned me ahead before I started reading it myself.

I'm not a fan of hers. She has been said to be super difficult to work with by people. And she is not particularly likeable either in interviews.