A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZEA Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as … OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE
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 an 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.
Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel, To Paradise, coming in January 2022.
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The characterization in this book is phenomenal.
Brilliant. One of the best books I’ve ever read ( and I read 3 to 5 books a week). The characters were so real, I could touch them and their stories touched me like no other work of fiction has for ages. Truly immersive and impressive.
I found this book so depressing and repetitive. I know many people loved it. Just wasn’t for me
Loved it.
one of my favorite books
Awful
This was a very long 2 hankie book, but so worth the read! It had amazing tragic characters that you become invested in almost from the start. It’s not an easy read due to some of the subject matter, but once again, so worth the time and tears.
The author managed to convey the abuse without dwelling on it forever. Just enough to make the point
This book will stay with me forever. The bonds of friendship and love weave endlessly throughout this tragic tale. A brutal but necessary insight into the impact of a person’s traumatic past on not only the individual but those who try to love him.
At around page 200 of this 720 page behemoth, I almost threw in the towel. It was slow moving and I didn’t see myself getting more invested in the story despite what others had said. But taking their advice, I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. A moving and devastating examination of the lives of 4 friends over a span of 40+ years. A story that will stay with you. Bring some tissue.
I finished this 10 days ago and have been struggling to come up with any words that would do this book justice. And I’m kicking myself that I didn’t pick it up sooner (the sheer immensity of pages were to blame).
The story follows four friends. They meet in college and form a lifelong bond, always present in each other’s lives as their careers advance.
We learn that one of the characters, Jude St. Francis, has led a horribly abusive life, and we learn about the details along with the other characters. The damage haunts him, as it comes to haunt the others who try to help him, and this forms the bones of the story, as we lurch through Jude’s life, always fearing for his safety. Always loving him and wanting to protect him from himself.
This book broke me. Rarely do characters come to matter to me as much as these, and although the book does spin off into too much of a tangent sometimes, it’s Jude and Willem who are the heart and the soul of it.
If you read one book this year, make it this one, but prepare to be destroyed.
This book… these characters… changed me as a reader. I talk about it ALL the time. Do not let the size overwhelm you. It’s a gorgeous book.
one of the best books i’ve ever read
I actually recommend this with some reservations. It was epic. Beautiful. Un-put-down-able. Yet, I also basically sobbed through the last 150 pages (it’s over 700 pages altogether). It was devastating, and unexpected – an extraordinary depiction of male friendships, which I so rarely find. So detailed and so immediate that I felt thrust intimately and excruciatingly into the lives of these characters, even as it skipped across time. Heartbroken does not begin to describe how it left me. Read it: YOU MUST. But read it when your heart is strong and your faith in humanity is sturdy, cause it will shake you like you’re an inconsequential little leaf in the big, wide world.
Having said that…the idea of being irreparably broken sits uncomfortably with me. That is all I will say about it to avoid spoilers…but I’m a social worker, dammit!! Gah. Nevertheless – brilliant book that is gonna haunt me for a while.
I have given Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life” five stars because it is a masterful work of art. I did not love it, but I can’t stop thinking about it.
The novel follows the life of Jude St. Francis over four decades, starting sometime shortly after he has graduated from law school and settled in New York. Jude, we learn, had a horrific childhood – physical, sexual and emotional abuse that is all too believable. He is emotionally crippled and physically handicapped (one of his tormentors runs over him with a car).
Jude has somehow survived the nightmare of his youth. He graduates from Harvard with honors and goes to Yale Law School. He joins a law firm and eventually becomes a very successful corporate litigator who has a network of incredibly supportive friends.
It sounds like an uplifting, feel good kind of story, but of course it is not.
This is a long novel that I read slowly. I have been with Jude St. Francis for several weeks and I am really glad to be done with him. Toward the end of the novel he reflects (as he does a lot) on the support of his friends and wonders why they love him when he is so unlovable. And I have to say that I’m with Jude on that. He is difficult to love. Many times I wanted to shake him and say, “Come on. Move on. You can’t change the past. Don’t let it ruin the rest of your life.”
I guess that’s the thing. He didn’t really survive the abuse. The other take away from this novel is the beautiful and inexplicable bond of friendship. This is a love story. A very painful one.
Such depth, joy, sorrow, laughter, success and failure all rolled up in a beautifully written story about four best friends and their the road they each travel together. What makes it unique is that the four friends are male. I loved reading this friendship through a male voice. It is a beautiful but sad story.
ugh! awful, just plain awful!
A beautifully written book with great characters. Subject matter is dark and the story is at times difficult to swallow, but it is hard to put the book down!
One of a kind. The prose is fantastic
Devastating, brilliant, riveting. One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. A beautiful and poignant meditation on the power of love and friendship, as well as pain and healing. This is not an easy novel to read but it is ultimately rewarding.