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A review by ralovesbooks
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
5.0
Would recommend, but with gobs of disclaimers about every trigger warning in the book
I am still reeling from this book, so I am going to bullet this out.
- Amazing, amazing writing. I am going to look up the author's previous book immediately. Probably one of the best books I have ever read.
- SO tough with the content. But I didn't feel that the characters were exploited in a puppetmaster kind of way. I think the author is asking, given this set of parameters, what is the impact on a person and his world?
- I appreciated the book more than I enjoyed it. I felt this way about [b:The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1439197219s/6288.jpg|3355573]. In both cases, I was awed by the skill of the writer but had no affection for what was happening in the book.
- I gave myself permission to stop reading if it ever gave me nightmares or if I dreaded reading it. Neither happened, but I did find myself clenching my fists subconsciously. Then I would take a break. I certainly didn't dread reading it; I basically brought the book with me everywhere and read during every spare moment. Super compelling.
- One quibble: the author often refers to the main character, Jude, as simply "he." I don't mind that, but the VAST majority of the characters were men. So without an antecedent name to refer back to, I would often read a whole page without knowing who to picture in the scene, because "he" wasn't ALWAYS Jude. I'm sure this was an intentional choice, but it seemed unnecessarily tricky to me.
- Okay, two quibbles: There are 3 instances of a shift in perspective, and I didn't think they were necessary. The author did such a good job with the omniscient third person narrator (SO HARD TO DO) that these breathing spots of first-person felt less than.
I am still reeling from this book, so I am going to bullet this out.
- Amazing, amazing writing. I am going to look up the author's previous book immediately. Probably one of the best books I have ever read.
- SO tough with the content. But I didn't feel that the characters were exploited in a puppetmaster kind of way. I think the author is asking, given this set of parameters, what is the impact on a person and his world?
- I appreciated the book more than I enjoyed it. I felt this way about [b:The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1439197219s/6288.jpg|3355573]. In both cases, I was awed by the skill of the writer but had no affection for what was happening in the book.
- I gave myself permission to stop reading if it ever gave me nightmares or if I dreaded reading it. Neither happened, but I did find myself clenching my fists subconsciously. Then I would take a break. I certainly didn't dread reading it; I basically brought the book with me everywhere and read during every spare moment. Super compelling.
- One quibble: the author often refers to the main character, Jude, as simply "he." I don't mind that, but the VAST majority of the characters were men. So without an antecedent name to refer back to, I would often read a whole page without knowing who to picture in the scene, because "he" wasn't ALWAYS Jude. I'm sure this was an intentional choice, but it seemed unnecessarily tricky to me.
- Okay, two quibbles: There are 3 instances of a shift in perspective, and I didn't think they were necessary. The author did such a good job with the omniscient third person narrator (SO HARD TO DO) that these breathing spots of first-person felt less than.