Review: A Little Life

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Just to start: as someone who unashamedly judges books by their cover, I was not incentivized to read this at all until I accidentally stumbled across the 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition box set of this at a bookstore with the pretty artwork (that also conveniently subdivides the novel into 4 digestible physical books). 

Having finished it, I'd say the original cover is pretty representative of its contents, and also representative of my personal distaste for this work. Ironically, the box set artwork is closer to what I was "hoping" the experience of this would be: a touching reflection on the lives of 4 friends across decades.

One can debate on whether this could be considered "misery porn" or not. I'm not really interested in arguing over the definition of that here. I'll just discuss my overall thoughts:

The first 25% of this book, as well as parts of the middle, are actually decent. Yanagihara strikes me as someone who could be capable of writing a compelling novel if she tried.

Jude and Willem in particular come off as characters that I want to root for. I actually like the exploration of their relationship dynamic, in its imperfections and yet them clearly still caring about each other and figuring out how to make things work amidst the larger shadow that is Jude's trauma.

But all of that said, it comes off at the end of the day feeling in the same manner I might guiltily find myself rooting for two characters in a fanfic. Because the actual execution of their storyline is bad fanfic quality. 

By that, I mean in that story events are orchestrated in a way to satisfy some arbitrary wish-fulfillment of the author that feels at odds with the natural progression of the work.

So many elements in the latter 3/4ths of this book felt unnecessary. 

- Caleb (as a person who literally fits the "worst-case" profile of a partner for Jude) felt unnecessary. 

- Dr. Traylor adding onto Jude's already well-developed existing trauma felt unnecessary.

- Without spoiling, the last 25% of this book in its entirety felt unnecessary.

- Given the way things pan out, Malcolm (one of the 4 main characters) felt unnecessary.

There are already components of a believable narrative arc baked into this book, but they otherwise feel half done (see: JB) and then tossed to the wayside to focus entirely on Jude's suffering and why it continues to be never-ending. For the first 200 pages or so it is compelling. And then it becomes exhausting. And then at some point I'm just hate reading to see how it ends.

And it's not that this kind of suffering doesn't exist in real life. It's just at some point, the point has already been made, and any more additional suffering after that makes me question what the author is really trying to accomplish here. 

A lot of people point to the Yanagihara interview where she shares her thoughts on talk therapy and how she doesn't really believe in it, as a way of casting doubt on this book. I take less issue with that belief in itself, and more with how she set about to write an entire book that in its execution argues against the use of talk therapy for some people, while admitting that she didn't do any research into this subject. 

And then using all of that to basically say, some people are beyond saving anyway.

Even if that notion were true (I wholeheartedly disagree)... I find it incredibly disturbing the extent that it could be weaponized against people for whom this isn't actually true at all. Full disclaimer: I'm writing on this as someone for whom talk therapy didn't really work for years, until switching therapists and finally finding someone who did work for him.

Moreover, the talk therapy sessions that do exist in this book barely feel like real therapy sessions at all. Ask anyone who's actually benefitted from a therapist who actually knows their shit, and they can tell you that more things happen than the bullshit that's showcased as "therapy" in this book. It barely is given any thought, because the author has nothing to show for what real talk therapy actually looks like. Or she's only ever seen shitty therapists. But really though, I can't even say that Jude experienced shitty therapy because I have no idea even after reading this book what feedback he actually got from his therapist.

Anyone with a background as traumatic as Jude's deserves better than the treatment showcased here. It would be one thing if the book ended at the first quarter (with a tinge of hope), or as a cathartic Greek tragedy that ends quickly, but instead we're treated to a decades long treatise on how to live "a little life" in the aftermath of trauma without ever really trying to confront it in good faith, while accruing even more pointless personal tragedies just for the hell of it.

Sure, some people never get around to addressing their trauma either. In other books there is usually a broader point to be made when that happens (e.g. classic literature) but in this case it feels like the only point is to argue against a straw-man that was never convincingly strung up in the first place. 

Clearly others enjoyed this book. I'll admit I enjoyed it too at moments. I just... ultimately can't recommend it personally. Unfortunately.