Why I can’t stop recommending ‘A little life’ by Hanya Yanagihara
By: Florencia Castro
Tags: Book Review, Reading, Novel

“My phone rang, and although it wasn’t a sinister time of night, and although nothing had happened that I would later see as foreshadowing, I knew, I knew.”

Yes, it is an 832-page novel. And it will probably make you cry. But even though it’s a difficult read, as soon as I finished it, I only wanted to go back to the beginning and start reading it again. Going back to when they were all young, and you were not aware of how their lives would develop.

‘A Little Life follows four college classmates — broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition — as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.’

I had spent the last years reading non-fiction books, with this weird idea that any time spent reading should improve myself.

However, the pandemic shook things up for everyone, including me, so I was navigating Pinterest trying to find new hobbies or stuff to learn in order to fill my days. I started reading lots of blog posts on great books or favorite books of famous people so, after reading ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, I stumbled upon a post with 31 you ‘won’t be able to stop thinking about’. Right under ‘The handmaid’s tale’, there was A little life.

I did not give it that much thought and I just ordered it.

I became absorbed by the book, up to the point that I was telling the story to my partner (whom I know would never read it).

Why did I like it so much? Because it makes you feel something, it actually makes you feel a lot. The book has nothing to do with me or my story, I am lucky enough to have had a healthy and happy childhood. But it gave the phrase ‘everybody is fighting a battle you know nothing about’ a whole new meaning. We sometimes get caught up in our problems at such a high level that we forget that we have all the tools to be happy, or at least I do. But some others don’t, and reading it in the first person, learning so much about trauma, and the good and evil in humankind moved me.

You shall expect a disturbing and dark book, with some broken characters and their struggles through life. But there is also something beautiful about it (otherwise why would I recommend an 800-pages long hard time) and a great description of unconditional love.

Be ready to be amazed and to be disappointed and full of hope by our society, but most of all, be ready to be deeply moved and feel extremely close to the characters as if they were your own friends. I think by the time you finish it, you will have a fresh outlook on life, love, and relationships, with a stronger focus on what matters most.

Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified.

You will want things to develop differently. The young men will become part of you and I think it has been a before and after in my life. I felt compelled to share the story, to let people know about this experience they can get by reading this book. It will make you fall in love with reading again, as it made me.

As ‘The New Yorker’ puts it: Elemental, irreducible.

I was so moved by this dramatic story, that I’ve chosen another long novel with complex issues, ‘I know this much is true’ by Willy Lamb for my next reading. I’m also reading ‘A Marriage Story’ by Tayari Jones. Looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you all.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve already read ‘A little life’ and what’s your feedback. If you’ve read other books that have shaped your view of the world, please share!