A Little Life

A LITTLE LIFE
by Hanya Yanagihara

Award: Kirkus Winner 2015

Nominations: Booker Finalist 2015, Carnegie Finalist 2016, Dublin Finalist 2017, Goodreads Finalist 2015, National Book Finalist 2015, Women's Prize Finalist 2016

Date Read: May 24, 2020

I just finished this tome and I cannot recall the last time a book made me cry so much at the end. It's been a minute. But I do love when I care so much about the characters that what happens to them matters and this is definitely a character driven novel where the characters absolutely matter.

A Little Life is fascinating for many reasons, but the two that stand out for me are the range of human experience and self love. This novel centers on four friends who have just graduated from college and are trying to make it in their respective professions in New York City. The fact that all four find professional success seems wildly unrealistic to me, but I digress. JB is an artist, Malcolm is an architect, Jude is an attorney and Willem is an actor. But honestly, the novel is about Jude and to a large extent, Willem.

By the time Jude reaches university, an achievement unto itself, he has already experienced the worst of what humanity has to offer. He has been physically assaulted, sexually abused and exploited and emotionally tortured. The fact that he doesn't wind up in prison or strung out is a miracle. As a survivor, however, his biggest enemy becomes himself. He is unable to shed the shroud of self-blame or to even explore the possibility of loving himself his entire life, yet he does succeed in finding his tribe and building lasting relationships.

SPOILER ALERT

Jude eventually finds true lasting love from Harold and Willem; Harold as a father figure and Willem in friendship that turns to love. Harold and Willem shower Jude with patience and lasting love, however he never actually feels worthy of this love. He lets it in but only so far. Jude experiences the worst of humanity and the best of humanity, all in a single lifetime. 

Everything begins to unravel when Willem dies and Jude becomes untethered. While he doesn't actively turn to suicide, he does turn to passive suicide by starving himself and extreme self neglect. My heart absolutely broke for him, and in turn with a really good book, for myself as well. I feel like this was a reminder I needed right now. 

Yanagihara has created a masterpiece here and kept me engaged page after page. I am grateful for this gift in the form of a book. What a gem!

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