A Little Life ~ Hanya Yanagihara (55 of 2024)

 A Little Life follows four friends after they graduate from a small, prestigious Massachusetts college: Willem, a kind and talented actor; Jean-Baptiste JB, a sharp and sometimes-caustic painter who want to make a name in the world of art, Malcolm, an aspiring architect at a well-known firm; and Jude Saint Francis, a mysterious and intelligent litigator a disabled genius.

It is deeply unsettling and painful, as much for the inevitability of how the story plays out as for the specific tragedies the characters suffer, Jude above all. And that is exactly the point. Great literature helps us understand life, real life, and not every story is supposed to make us feel good.

A Little Life follows a chronological narrative with flashbacks frequently interspersed throughout. The novel's narrative perspectives shift throughout the story's progression. During the beginning of the novel, a third-person omniscient perspective privileging the thoughts of Jude, Willem, JB and Malcolm is employed. As the story gradually shifts its focus towards Jude, its perspective progressively molds entirely around each character's interactions with Jude and the experiences of Jude himself. This literary perspective is punctuated by first-person narratives told by an older Harold, nine years in the future.

The book is divided into seven parts:

I. Lispenard Street

II. The Postman

III. Vanities

IV. The Axiom of Equality

V. The Happy Years

VI. Dear Comrade

VII. Lispenard Street

The Axiom of EqualityThe book follows their relationships changing under the influence of success, wealth, addiction, and pride.

The novel's main focus is the enigmatic lawyer, Jude. He suffers from a damaged spine which leaves him with a limp and excruciating pain in his legs that comes and goes. Unbeknownst to his friends, he also frequently self-harms; one such bout of cutting led Willem to take him to Andy Contractor, Jude's doctor and trusted friend. It is clear that he suffers from debilitating mental trauma from his childhood.

Despite this apparent closeness with his friends, Jude finds himself unable to divulge either detail of his past or current state of mind to his roommate. Nonetheless, he thrives in his law practice, and develops a close parent-child relationship with his former professor, Harold, and his wife Julia, which results in the pair adopting him when Jude turns 30. While thankful, the time before the adoption is filled with further bouts of self-harm, as Jude believes he is inherently unworthy of affection. Meanwhile, the rest of the group finds success in their respective fields, with Willem becoming a star of theater and then film. JB finds success as an artist but also becomes addicted to crystal meth. The group stages an intervention, where JB mocks Jude by doing a crude imitation of his limp. In spite of successful treatment, and a great deal of apologizing, Jude finds it impossible to forgive JB. Willem refuses to forgive him too, causing the group to fragment, with only Malcolm remaining friends with all three of them.

It becomes clear that Jude was sexually traumatized at a very young age, making it difficult for him to engage in romantic relationships. His friends and loved ones begin questioning this isolation as he enters his forties, with Willem especially being baffled with regard to Jude's sexuality. As his loneliness grows more intense, he enters an abusive relationship with fashion executive Caleb, who is disgusted by Jude's limp and his increasing use of a wheelchair. Jude finally breaks off the relationship after Caleb rapes him, and they meet a final time when Caleb follows him to dinner with Harold, humiliates him, and then follows Jude to his apartment, where he brutally beats and rapes him, leaving him for dead. Jude nonetheless refuses to report the incident to the police, believing he deserved it. Besides Harold, only Andy – Jude's doctor and ongoing confidante – knows the truth of the failed relationship.

Although Jude's body manages to heal, the rape causes him to flash back to his childhood, wherein he was raised in a monastery and repeatedly sexually assaulted by the brothers. He recalls a period when one of the brothers, Brother Luke, ran away with him, forcing him into years of child prostitution. After he was rescued by the police, Jude was placed in state care, where the abuse continued at the hands of the counselors there. After the break-up with Caleb brings back this childhood trauma, Jude finally decides to kill himself but survives the attempt. In the aftermath, Willem comes back home and begins to live with him. Jude continues to refuse therapy but begins to tell Willem the least traumatic stories about his childhood, which Willem finds disturbing and horrifying. The two soon begin a relationship, but Jude continues to struggle with opening up, and does not enjoy having sex with him.

In an attempt to curb his cutting, Jude decides to instead burn himself as a form of self-harm, but accidentally inflicts third-degree burns that require a skin graft. The wound is so severe that Andy tells him he has to tell Willem what happened, or else he will do it for him. Before Jude can tell Willem, Andy accidentally divulges the information. Willem is horrified but, after a difficult fight, Jude finally confesses that he does not enjoy sex, and tells Willem about the years of sexual and physical abuse he endured. Jude also reveals that he escaped state care at age 14 and hitchhiked, performing sexual acts as payment to drivers. He also explains to Willem that the damage to his legs was caused by a man called Dr. Traylor, who picked Jude up and held him captive while he cured him of venereal disease, assaulted him, and eventually ran him over with his car.

The relationship continues, with Willem sleeping with women (and not with Jude) . The two settle into a comfortable life together, which is shaken when Jude's legs become worse, and he must reluctantly amputate. He manages to learn to walk again with his new prosthetics, and the pair enter a period of their life which Willem dubs "The Happy Years". However, while picking up Malcolm and his wife from the train station for a visit, Willem is involved in a car accident with a drunk driver, which kills all three occupants. With his close friend and lover dead, Jude descends once again into self-destructive habits, losing such an excessive amount of weight that his remaining loved ones stage another intervention. Though they are able to get him to gain weight and to attend therapy, years of depression and despair finally overtake Jude, and he takes his own life.

Pros:

1. Beautifully epitomizes power of friendship and brotherhood.

2. Absolutely lovable characters - Jude the lawyer, Willem the actor, JB the painter, Harold the foster father, Andy the doctor.

3. Harold’s narratives were simply beautiful, full of love, very parental. You will want to get adopted by him!

4. The gay romance was very sweet and loving (I can’t believe I’m saying that!).

5. Loved the creative art and masterpieces of JB and Malcolm. Very visual.

6. Heart-wrenchingly beautiful prose. Leaves u shocked, pained, panicked, breathless with an empty hollow hole in ur gut.

7. Details of self-abuse made me physically cringe, it was so real & gruesome.

.....

Cons:

1. Serious health hazard. Read with caution.

2. Emotional abuser about Physical abuse.

3. ALittleLife is ALittleLong!! I skipped about 150 pgs.

4. Never-ending, depressing nightmare. Lil too-bad-to-be-happening-to-one-person-in-one-lifetime!

5. The book should be renamed as The Gay Life! Everything gay about it and too much of it too.

6. Not much characterization on Malcolm. No back history on how they all became friends.

7. Most importantly: Hanya’s writing style was very confusing. You wouldn’t know who she was talking about until you read few paragraphs or sometimes even few pages! Every chapter started out with that confusion! Also it was confusing as to who is black, who is white, who is gay and who is not!

8. The writing didn’t let me accurately visualize their faces either due to lack of/confusing details regarding physical descriptions.

The book will renew your faith in the goodness of people out there. The book will destroy your faith and trust in people. It is full of raw and real emotions. You will feel intense anger at Caleb the boyfriend. You will feel disgust and nausea at Brother Luke’s “niceness”. You will hate nice people after this book. Coz it is a MASK that people wear. I hated Jude’s selfish, self-involved, self-absorbed personality. There are good people surrounding him who wanted to help him and still his trauma consumed him and made him shut off from those who loved him. But that goes onto show the long-term consequences of abuse. Damaged soul indeed. Suicide attempts, self-abuse - all were so painful and insightful too. 

With 814 pages, the book is lengthy and is tackling difficult subject matter with too much pain to handle in one book. There need to be a separate category for such books – Great reads, which cannot be read again?