A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara

Spoiler alert: A thousand napkins sadly won't be enough.
This story is deep and full of sadness, but also
love and friendship. So you need to be prepared to be
emotionally touched.
 

Hello everyone

Today I'm going to do the review of A Little Life, written by the American novelist Hanya Yanagihara. I've came across this book because my cousin suggested me to read it, and I really loved it. Despite the book is quite long and full of heavy material, it became a best-seller all over the world. The title refers to the poem "The Waste Land" of T.S. Eliot.
The book talks about the relationship between four classmates from a college in Massachusetts that move to New York to start a new life. They are, though, broke and adrift, holding on only because of their friendship and ambition. Willem is kind and attractive, he's an aspiring actor, while JB is a painter trying to make it in the art world. Malcom is a frustrated architect working at a prominent firm. The centre of their gravity is the enigmatic but brilliant Jude, with a sad and dark past that doesn't want to tell about.

As the years passed by, though, their friendships seem to get deeper, but darker as well, because of addiction, success and pride. The greatest challenge is Jude, incredibly talented but also a broken man, with the mind and body scarred by an untold childhood. He's haunted by his trauma that seems to overcome him and define his life forever. 

The book is divided into 7 parts following a chronological order, interrupted by flashbacks. At the beginning of the novel we see as an omniscient narrator is telling the story, while the focus is slowly moving towards Jude, his interactions with the others, his flashbacks and his own experiences. The story is told by an unspecified future version of Harold, the mentor and professor of Jude in university.




The novel deals with different themes, most of them difficult ones. The main themes are: male relationships and homosexuality; trauma, recovery and support; chronic pain, disability and self-harm.

Due to the heavy themes, the book can be really touching, especially if you dealt with these topics, so it's recommended to talk to someone after it, if you feel worse. Otherwise, the story is really interesting, especially their friendships and relationships with other people, as Harold for Jude.