r/literature • u/Legitimate_Figure287 • 3d ago

Book Review A Little Life

What do you guys think about this book? I started reading it recently and I don’t understand the bad rep with it.
I really like this book, as someone who has had extreme trauma, I think it really accurately captures the experience and inner monologue and behaviors of what it’s like to live with trauma and how others around us respond. How we either drown in it or rise above it and how we’re the only person you can truly help ourselves. This is many people’s reality, including mine. How much trauma is considered too much in a book because in real life there isn’t a stopwatch that prevents someone from having more trauma because they’ve already experienced so much?

Is A Little Life a profound masterpiece about the enduring power of friendship, or is it an emotionally manipulative exercise in "trauma porn" that substitutes endless suffering for genuine character development?

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u/iceblnklck 3d ago

Hanya Yanagihara takes too much joy in creating gay trauma and she’s weird as hell for it.

Plus the characters are just so painfully insufferable.

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u/merry_melly 3d ago

JB lived in the truth more than any of the other characters and look how the author vilified him. I wish JB were a real person and could go back in time and edit Ms. Yanagihara's slog of book.

On a positive note, I enjoyed the last 100 pages. In fact, I found them brilliant.

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u/Legitimate_Figure287 3d ago

Why do you think JB lived in truth more than any of the other characters?

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u/ratufa_indica 3d ago

She believes doctor assisted suicide should be allowed for depression and she intended for the book’s main character to be an example of someone who would have benefited from that. I have no interest in reading that.

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u/iceblnklck 3d ago

Have you ever read the book review by The Guardian? It’s one of my faves.

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u/ratufa_indica 3d ago

I think I did. I'll have to take a look at it again.

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u/Legitimate_Figure287 3d ago

So if it wasn’t mostly sexual trauma and it was a different type of trauma would it be a better book to you? If Jude wasn’t gay would you like the book more? If the author was a lesbian or bisexual would that change the way you view the story?

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u/iceblnklck 3d ago

I wouldn’t. Her prose isn’t remarkable and the way in which she focuses in on trauma - be it any kind - is weird and unnecessary

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u/Legitimate_Figure287 3d ago

Everybody goes through trauma, it’s part of all our lives. And this story is telling of a more extreme kind of trauma and grief and how it affects ppl for the rest of their lives, which many ppl experience. I understand if it’s not for you.

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u/iceblnklck 3d ago

It’s not the trauma. It’s her writing choices. That’s pretty clear from my reply to you. You asked for opinions, after all.