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Book Review of A Little Life

A Little Life
A Little Life
Author: Hanya Yanagihara
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
reviewed on + 354 more book reviews


Not my style. Could only do the first chapter. Reading the other reviews I might set it aside for now and try it again at a later time.

Tried it again, not for me. Here is a review.

I think what makes the most angry about this book is that I do see flashes of brilliance in it. Images I loved, earned emotions. Early on in the novel, one character muses about being a guest in his own life. Another talks about photography in terms that made me stop in my tracks and pause the audiobook just so I think about what she'd written. Later, the relationship between Jude and his adoptive father and the love his adoptive father has for him made me cry. But all of that doesn't matter, when the end result is what we're given.

What it comes down to the fact that pain was the only point, and I think that is reprehensible.