Book review: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Where do I start? It is hard for me to put into words what this book made me feel. Prior to picking up the A Little Life, I had heard about it from family and friends as well as on social media; I needed to know what all this fuss was about.

For the first few chapters I have to admit it I wasn’t immediately compelled, however I was mistaken. Once you dip your feet into the story, all you want to do is keeping swimming.

To give a brief overview of what the book is about without giving away anything: the story revolves around four men: Jude, Willem, JB and Malcom. Or rather, it revolves mainly around Jude and links the other three characters according to Jude’s life. The story starts when they are in university and progresses but memories of the past frequently resurge, especially for Jude.

Yanagihara has a way with words that is simply compelling; she draws you in, with the intention of never letting you back out. And I do mean that figuratively and literally; the life lessons I have learned from this book will stick with me forever. As the title says, it really does feel like you have lived through “A little life”! I myself find it hard to persevere at times and after reading this, it put my problems into perspective and made me want to persevere more than ever before and become better as a person and in what I do.

I would like to point out that anyone who is in a mentally unstable state should perhaps not pick up this book. There are very frequent graphic scenes; not just briefly skimmed over but described in a lot of detail. I found myself getting goosebumps at certain times (bear in mind I’m a little squeamish) so beware! Some of the scenes described are: self-harm, physical abuse, verbal abuse, rape, grief and death (excuse the gruesome image; just taking precautions).

As you can tell, the book discusses matters of constant pain (physical and mental), friendships, love and family. The bonds that the characters create are heart-warming and were a reminder (now more than ever) to look out for loved ones and spend time with them as often as I possibly can.

All in all, I could not recommend this book to you enough and please do not be put off by it’s length (720 pages); you really don’t feel the time pass when you read it. A Little Life immediately became one of my favourite books and I hope it becomes yours too.