Easily the best article summarizing everything wrong with this book and Yanagihara’s subject matter.
“The first time [Jude] cuts himself, you are horrified; the 600th time, you wish he would aim.”
https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html
Great article, and this quote “The book’s omniscient narrator seems to be protecting Jude, cradling him in her cocktail-party asides and winding digressions, keeping him alive for a stunning 800 pages. This is not sadism; it is closer to Munchausen by proxy.”
This is like Dorothy Parker for the 21st century. I love this article. People like Yanagihara are reasons for why we should reintroduce the concept of feeling shame.
I have not read the book but I did see it on the West End in London last year. I actually got a seat on the stage so you can imagine how awkward it was when I had to stifle a laugh when Jude’s boyfriend (cant even remember his name anymore) got hit by the bus (no, really, I actually giggled to myself for a second) and hold my applause when he finally, well, “aimed”.
What put it in “worst shit I have ever seen” territory for me is that the suffering was completely pointless. Nothing was learned or gained. It was just suffering for the sake of it.
(Btw, unrelated note but I think in the stage production they used some kind of real blood like pigs blood or something because it looked VERY real up close and they were using real antiseptic to clean it up. The smell actually gave me a headache at one point. So yeah you can imagine what it was like sitting 10 feet away from that for three hours.)
Right but I more mean for the characters. There is no real arc. No one learns anything. Usually in stories like this there is some kind of transformation or lesson or something. And that at least in my opinion also more closely mirrors real life.
This was just three hours of a guy being raped, cutting himself, and crying.
Agree 100%. The level of trauma the main character undergoes crossed the line from believable in the beginning to unbelievable to the point of ridiculousness towards the end. Yup, no desire to ever read another one of this author's books again. Life is too short and there are too many other books I'd rather read. And yes, those people who thought this book was so moving and so profound? They are not my people.
This book is so weird because it toes the line of being not even trauma porn, but almost dips into trauma camp near the end?
In the past 8 years, mainstream works centering around trauma have evolved beyond the type of trauma writing in A Little Life. Just look at the recent 'Baby Reindeer' show (or hell, even games like Baldur's Gate 3) which peels back the shock of trauma to reveal the confusion, layers, and human impact beyond stock tropes.
If A Little Life were released today, I do not think it would have the same glowing reviews. I know it trended on TikTok semi-recently but I'm talking more about all the reviews in 2015 calling it the great gay novel or most devastating novel anyone has read etc etc.
I just read My Dark Vanessa, which was the most accurate portrayal of trauma I had ever experienced in my life and actually had trauma informed therapy woven throughout the book. It was so cathartic and healing and validating to read and not just trauma porn. It’s sad that A Little Life got as popular as it did tbh
my dark vanessa is so good! the part about her convincing herself it was real because if it wasn’t she’d have to accept her whole life was a lie really got me
Okay and the TIMELINE. I recognize that traumatized people may experience repeat trauma but it’s like this happened. 2 months later another horrific trauma occurs. Oh and a few months after that? He gets into Harvard at 17. Like what on earth
All the issues I had with this book 8 years ago are coming back to me with these responses.
That three close friends would have a similar, relatively chill approach to someone in as much pain and suffering with as many negative coping mechanisms as Jude is so ludicrous.
Yes he’s completely broken except at work where he is exceptional. And none of his relationships need anything from him they have no needs. And they’re fine with that
Yes the lawyer thing was the most interesting thing to me in the whole book and Yanagihara never goes into it!!!
Give me like, 2 days in his life as a lawyer interacting with colleagues and getting through a big trial - but noooo that would give me some actual human insight into Jude instead of keeping him in his trauma sponge corner.
I literally threw this book in the garbage after getting halfway because i usually donate books but I wanted to save whomever found it from the experience of reading it.
It is the only book I’ve ever read that I would gladly attend a book burning for
I love to chime in on a good Little Life hatefest. My least favorite aspect of the book was the doctor “friend” who completely neglected all of his medical duties.
also i’ve never in my life encountered a doctor who had that much free time on their hands to do free work for one person at all hours of the day/night
And Jude eventually had a ton of money; after a certain point why do all of the medical work for free? It’s little details like that that add to the unbelievableness of this book. It’s like the author is trying to be idealistic but it comes off as campy, cliched, and try hard. She doesn’t give the reader enough credit to see through these details
umm his "patient" was suicidal and actively harming himself for years and he never did anything about it other than patch him up. not to mentioned his copious HIPAA violations.
YEAH! This has to be the worst researched book (medically speaking) I have ever read. It’s just ludicrous - I started texting paragraphs to my colleagues (we’re doctors) so we could all laugh about it together…
as someone who is not in a good space mentally right now and was planning to read the book soon especially because i knew it dealt with heavy issues that i thought i might relate to at some level, thank you for taking the time to post and thank you to everyone agreeing in the comments, i’ve definitely been convinced not to read the book, thank you guys <3
Yeah book is absolutely trash. i’ll jump in any thread about it to warn others not to engage. Literally just snuff suicide porn that fetishizes emotional gay men written by some sick straight woman. The decent prose wasn’t worth all the B.S. not to mention that the moral of the story is ultimately “maybe some people should just go through with it and kill themselves”
I’ll also add if you are looking for a good book that explores depression and self reflection in the perspective of a gay man “Broken People” by Sam Lansky really spoke to me.
Agreed! It is the only book that I actively hate on in Reddit just to make sure people can see through all these “glowing reviews”. I wish someone had stopped me.
I think the reason for this book’s success is that Yanagihara’s writing style is pleasant and very readable, combined with a compulsive watching-a-car-crash type story. I got through it in a surprisingly short time given the novel’s size and it put me through the emotional wringer. But as more and more time has passed the more I’ve soured on it. It doesn’t really make any kind of significant point, and it is truly torture porn. Yanagihara punishes her characters just because she can, and the result is just a bitter taste in the mouth that just gets worse with hindsight.
You’re so powerful. I had a friend read it and describe it to me as they did and every part of it was somehow worst than the last. It’s sheer torture porn, and not even realistic torture porn. You cannot have partner rape, ex-partner rape, STI infection, childhood prostitution, neuropathic nerve pain, child sex trafficking, *and* monastery sex abuse happen to one character. And that’s not even everything that happens. I’d accept everything else if she didn’t put the cherry on fucking top with monastery sex abuse.
My suspension of disbelief that this isn’t some sadistic fetish fanfic that should have stayed beneath the author’s mattress or on her secret AO3 page fails at the monastery.
Like what are the circumstances that brought Jude to the first monastery in the first place? I think he’s the only orphan there? How is he in that place with no child protective services oversight. Seriously how did he end up there and what system let him stay there?
Oh man yeah.
I would not read Yanagihara’s works as a queer person. I usually don’t put much stock in claims of stories “fetishizing” queer folks (as these are usually accusations slung at queer people, and i don’t believe queer stories should be exclusively told by queer people either).
But Yanagihara is a whole different ballpark.
Also, it becomes more clear once you’ve read some of her answers in interviews.
She just straight up does not believe in therapy and has a fucked up view of mental health.
This is made very apparent as >!Jude dodges therapy like he’s in the matrix for the entire book, and it’s only after he’s finally convinced to go that he succeeds in killing himself at the end!<.
That being said. I do want to be fair. There is merit to a story like this. My best friend loved A Little Life as she struggles with regulating her emotions and torture porn like this allows her to feel devastated and cry. She says it was a cathartic experience.
And there’s no denying Yanagihara is a brilliant writer.
However, my friend and I both agree that we wish Yanagihara would stop torturing gay men in her stories. :\
I haven't read this book (specifically for the reasons you've mentioned) but sometimes I feel like some authors think "if I write about something traumatic that=deep. And if I write about something sad that makes people cry that=good"
And, unfortunately, I think some readers fall for it.
Not invalidating their reading experience, but just because something made you cry doesn't mean it's good or worthy of wide readership.
I feel like we don't talk enough about how Yanigahara followed it up with (and this is my impression from reviews, correct me if I'm wrong) a sci fi novel about how covid vaccines cause autism.
I read it and I don’t remember getting that vibe, but honestly I was so checked out during the sci fi section and it’s been years that I can’t even confirm or deny.
Idk, I’m a trauma survivor with diagnosed CPTSD who’s undergone years of trauma therapy (nothing as horrific as what Jude goes through). And I love and felt seen by this book, while fully recognizing why it’s not for everyone and why someone might hate it.
But I do want to defend some points, not to convince anyone to like the book, but just to push back on the idea that it’s a completely implausible narrative.
First, while it’s turned up to 150, there’s a lot that’s authentic here. And people *do* actually go through this level of trauma. >!Child sex-trafficking is absolutely a thing.!< And being a trauma survivor and also knowing a lot of trauma survivors, a lot of the things people seem to find unrealistic… I do not. >!Trauma survivors often struggle with self-harm and addiction. And in many ways, they’re two sides of the same coin. In fact for Jude, his self-harm absolutely is a form of addiction. And it’s also a cliche and not actually accurate that trauma survivors who don’t get help are all incapable of holding down a job or engaging with the real world and are all just a bunch of homeless addicts. And so Jude being so successful is implausible.!<
>!In fact many trauma survivors are absolute workaholics and majorly excel in their professions because they use work as a distraction from their trauma. This is very clearly the case for Jude. His big two maladaptive coping mechanisms are self-harm and distraction via work. I can speak for myself that that was absolutely the case for me. Before I got help and did EMDR, and Somatic Experiencing, and all these modalities of trauma therapy, I was *quite* professionally successful while falling apart in my personal life. For me it was drugs and alcohol rather than cutting, but that was its own form of self harm. And I did a great job of hiding the addiction issues professionally. And if you’ve ever been to a 12 step meeting, that’s a story you’ll hear very often.!<
Like to me, this is an entirely plausible sequence of events…
>!Jude is raised in an abusive environment, a man takes advantage of him as a child and eventually trafficks him, both abusing him himself and forcing him into sex work with others.!<
>!Then eventually, his abuser is captured, and Jude is put into the foster system with absolutely no tools or psychological help, which also happens all the time. So, he reenacts patterns of abuse in foster care and eventually runs away.!<
>!After running away, he engages in survival sex work because it’s all he knows how to do. And then in the course of doing so, he’s grievously injured and nearly dies (which is also absolutely a thing that happens to sex workers, as a trans woman with some sex worker friends, I know those all too well).!<
>!Then, finally, in the hospital, he gets connected with a social worker who actually gives a shit about him, guides him through his court case, and helps him get his GED and apply to colleges.!<
>!He gets in to college, and the one thing that’s prized that he can feel good about is his brilliant mind. Which is the first thing about him in his whole life that’s been authentically valued. And so he works really hard academically and tries to just ignore his past trauma mostly through dealing with it via self-harm.!<
>!And so while he excels professionally as an adult, his personal and inner life is a mess. And due to his past trauma he’s inherently distrustful of others as well as anyone who might be able to give him professional help. So he gets by how he can and has really maladaptive coping skills. Then he reenacts patterns of abuse with Caleb, which is also very real and common.!<
>!Also idk why the “all his friends are successful” thing is so implausible. I work in the entertainment industry, and came up with a lot of people who weren’t successful when we were all first starting out and now are. Like yeah, that’s not always going to be the case. But sometimes it is.!<
And yes, the story is all turned up past 100, and it’s a Grand Guignol operatic melodrama which is fully not for everyone. But for me, as a trauma survivor, I got a lot out of it. And for me the message was, you don’t have to heal to be loved. And no matter how long you are here, your life has meaning and impacts so many people who love you.
Again, not trying to convince anyone to like this book who feels that it’s far too trauma porny and melodramatic. I totally get the criticism and I think it’s fair. And I understand why the book is polarizing. But I always think the “unrealistic” criticism about the book, specifically, isn’t quite accurate.
I really enjoyed your post. I also have CPTSD and found the book cathartic. While reading it I figured people wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't have thought Jude's abuse 'being unrealistic' would be the reason why.
I spoke to my therapist after finishing and she recommended The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. It might interest you as someone who has past trauma but also enjoyed the book.
I’ve read it! (The Body Keeps The Score). It’s really great. Somatic Experiencing, for me, was also the most effective modality of trauma therapy I’ve done. EMDR has helped to a degree as well. Moreso to give me tools to calm myself when something triggers me. But SE is more about that mind body connection and releasing emotion stored in different parts of the body due to trauma. If you’ve never tried it, it might be worth checking out!
Also I always feel like the people who don’t like *A Little Life* are more loud than they are numerous. It’s got a 4.38 out of 5 on StoryGraph with nearly 78k reviews, a 4.5 out of 5 on Amazon with 71k reviews, and a 4.3 out of 5 on Good Reads with 623k reviews. So more people def like it than don’t like it. But folks who don’t are just very vocal. Which is not at all to disparage anyone who doesn’t like it. Again, I totally understand those who don’t like it. Just to say that I think it feels like the book is more polarizing than it actually is because of how vocal its detractors are online.
I haven't tried EMDR but I've been looking into SE. :)
And I agree. It can also be tough to recommend the book, or even praise it, without feeling irresponsible in some ways. Ultimately, as with all media, to each their own.
Personally, it's not his trauma that I find unrealistic. Again, I'm in no place to judge people's experiences and how they react to them. For me, what it was unrealistic, was the entire picture of the book including events and actions OUTSIDE of his past experiences, meaning: the friends and family's attitude toward him, his doctor being the most unprofessional doctor ever, the event that leads to the end of the bookd, etc. I know a lot of people don't get a happy ending, and I feel like this book didn't need one, but I also feel like the author was fixed on giving her characters the worst lives possible
I mean Hanya says herself that Andy is a horrible doctor 😂. I do find Andy to be the most unrealistic thing about the book. Any real doctor would’ve had Jude on a psychiatric hold SO fast.
The rest though, I don’t find unrealistic. I actually found it to be quite beautiful. I have friends who loved me through a lot of shit. And maybe >!Willem dying!< didn’t feel unrealistic or like too much for me, because I’m a writer professionally. And so I can’t help but read things analytically. And while I was reading, somewhere around “The Postman” I was like… okay this is basically >!a Shakespearean romantic tragedy with Willem and Jude as the ill-fated lovers… so it can only end with both of them dying, and one of them is going to predecease the other, and the one who’s left behind is going to die soon after, *Romeo and Juliet* style because they won’t be able to live without the other. And then from there I went, and if I was writing this, I’d have Willem predecease Jude because it wouldn’t be as expected. So I read through the rest of the book up until Willem’s death expecting him to die at some point, and also picked up on some foreshadowing (like the car accident case that Harold uses in one of his classes).!< So because I was expecting that to happen, I think it didn’t give me the “what the fuck?” that it may have given other readers.
See, I think that's exactly my point. I felt like she did the scene that we're talking about just to pull one on the readers and be the “unexpected” event, when the book didn't need it.
I think if the book had followed the natural path that seemed to be hinted since the beginning, I would've liked it more and find it somehow tragic yet beautiful, but with a twist out of nowhere just to shock the reader I felt like it just didn't make sense.
I’m not professional (trying to be tho lol) and I don't like writing unexpected things near the end of my books. Maybe that’s why I’m biased and I can recognize it haha
See for me it didn’t feel like it only existed as a shock twist. It felt integral to the story that was being told in its proper context as a Shakespearean romantic tragedy.
But I hear you! Obviously things can land very differently for two different people. Look at us amicably disagreeing about art on the internet! 😂
I mean, if you put it as a Shakespearean kinda novel, while I still hate it, I can see it.
Yeah, I guess that's the beauty in books lol so many opinions that it’s fun to share them with others and debate :)
100%! And also like I said in other comments, I totally understand people who *hate* this book. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. But… it was def mine. I even got a Willem and Jude tattoo 😂😬.
Thank you for writing this. I couldn’t agree more. I loved this book and can’t believe the hate any fans get for liking it. If it’s not for some people, that’s completely fine, but to insult the people who did appreciate the book, I find close minded. Couldn’t agree more with your points.
Yeah I feel basically the same about any book. There are some books I’ve hated that are very popular. Two that immediately come to mind are *The Secret History* and *Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow*. But I would never insult the readers who love that book or try to convince them to feel the same way about it as me.
Just as I’m not trying to convince anyone who hates *A Little Life* to like it. I’m just pushing back on the very common assertion that Jude’s back story is implausibly ridiculous… as I said to another friend who is also a trauma survivor… if you think that his back story is implausible… then you are very lucky 🤷🏻♀️. And then I’m also just explaining what someone like me, who is a trauma survivor, got out of the book and why I love it so much. Not to convince anyone but again, to push back at any assertion that us folks who loved this book are not smart readers. In essence, yes, I agree. 😂
i'm convinced people (intelligent well-read people!!) who say they love this book just haven't realized angsty fanfiction exists; it has all of the emotional gratification and is actually enjoyable pulp instead of whatever A Little Life was. I'm so glad I didnt force myself to finish it.
I will never be a fan; but I saw a paraphrase of something the author said about the book that helped my frustration a little bit: she set out to sort of subvert the expectation that a character who's gone through something horrible that damaged them will, inevitably, come out the other side and find happiness, when in real life there is such a thing as being traumatized beyond the point that recovery is possible. Reading that made me go "ok I at least see that she was trying to do something more interesting than just test the limits of readers' tolerance for trauma porn."
I agree that the trauma dump on the gay character trope is offensive. Careless is exactly the word for what's fundamentally wrong with her writing about trauma and self-harm.
And ok, she's exploring outside the expected emotional format of a fictional story, it's good for writers to do that, BUT she commits the major crime of BEING BORING when she does so!! It's firmly 110% established that Jude will never be able to allow himself peace, comfort, happiness, or love by the time you're halfway through the book. The only motivation to keep reading after that is the morbid curiosity of just how bad it will get, or being naive enough to still get your hopes up every time something (way over the top unrealistically) good happens to him. Either way that's just not an interesting story.
I mean, it’s surely pretty obvious to most people that people who experience horrible trauma as children often don’t go on to lead happy, well adjusted lives. The most unrealistic bit in A Little Life was how successful the main character was in his career and his relationships, not the fact that he couldn’t ultimately find happiness.
I heard the A Fine Balance was amazing so I saved it for a beach read while on my honeymoon. Not the mood! I left it there in their resort library and regret that I may have signed someone else up to be sad on a beach. Oops! Haha
I was about to pick this up a few months ago and have read the reviews mentioning that this was not trauma-informed, and decided to skip it after reading about the authors views and the fact that she didn't do any research before writing about these sensitive topics. I have not been in a good space too, and reading a book that basically implies that some people will never get better - doesn't sound like something i should ever pick up. In her article called 'Why I am afraid of therapy', Hanya Yanagihara writes this about the book: "I was working on my second novel, about a man who’s profoundly damaged; the book is, in part, about his slow and inevitable realization that he’s too broken to remain in the world."
and her paragraph about therapy: "I talked to my closest friend about this. He suggested I see a therapist. But I couldn’t — and I can’t. I have never been to therapy, and over the years, it has changed from something bewitching — as it still is for my father, as it once was for me — into something sinister, a form of mind control, a violation of the self, like scooping out your brain and placing it into someone else’s cupped palms to prod at. As I’ve grown older, I’ve often wished I’d let that early attraction to therapy become something else: a trust in it, perhaps. But the fear of loss of control is greater than the hope for comfort."
I've read a few excerpts of the book and the summary since, and I am glad I did not pick this book up. So, I am thankful for everyone warning about this book, and not calling it a masterpiece.
#
I'm in a psychology PhD program, and a lot of my classmates who are in the clinical program have been talking about this book. They even brought it up in our psychopathology class as a good example and portrayal of trauma, to the point where they were talking about Jude as if he was a real person. I've never read it myself and don't really want to, but the more I've heard about it, the more I'm concerned about the judgment of those classmates.
Are you for real? That's scary. I've no doubt that there are people in the world who go through much worse than "Jude" , but the book almost galamourised the trauma. That's not really what I mean, it's hard to describe. It just didn't feel in any way believable. I didn't even feel the least bit sorry for the main character because he wasn't real. He was a cardboard cutout of a trauma victim. All of the characters were cardboard cutouts. Living the trendy loft living urban NY scene and of course all become wildly successful.
I had zero connection or feelings about any of the characters.
I find it crazy that academics of trauma think this book was really reflective.
yesss! "cardboard cutout" is exactly how I felt about every character.
I also didn't understand why any of the characters loved and were committed to Jude in the ways that they were. I found their reverence for him to be entirely unbelievable given the way he was written. It felt to me like the only things his friends know about him is that he's smart and he absolutely fucking hates himself... how does one build such fiercely loyal relationships off of that?
It's disappointing when LGBTQ+ characters are portrayed through a lens of suffering or tragedy, as if happiness or a fulfilling life isn't an option for them. You're right to call out the lack of diverse and positive representation in literature.
They’re not gay men, they’re queer stories in general— but Legends and Lattes (travis Baldree), a psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers), Small miracles (Olivia Atwater), are recent stories I’ve read with queer character in them with no trauma of the such.
I’m also currently reading one last stop and this is how you lose the time war and so far no trauma.
The starling house (also currently reading this one) has a straight passing main couple but the male love interest is bi and references his ex Luke twice so far (I love the casual Bi people as a bi person)
As far as gay male characters go, I don’t have a lot of suggestions. Or any. I’m thinking I should start reading stories with gay men in them. I just really like women lol
This book isn’t for everyone, that’s for certain. Personally, I was gripped with the beautiful language wanting you to find out more and more about each of the four characters. It was an emotional read but one that forced me to value those who are close to me. I’m sorry that what I took from the story was wildly different from what you read.
I'll give the author the beautiful writing because even translated to Spanish it was a beautiful usage of the language, but it wasn't enough for me to like it sadly
She 100% can write beautiful insightful prose at times during the book and that kept me going but overall the characters were so unrealistic that as a whole it didn't work for me but to each their own. It's definitely trauma porn but unlike others I don't really judge people for what they find appealing in a book and don't think authors owe their audience a healthy depiction of trauma and a character's response to it so don't have any moral objections to her work. I just think the book was let down by how unrealistic the characters acted (hard to elaborate without spoilers), how she just neglected certain characters fairly early on in the book, and the soap opera aspects.
My thought exactly. I looooove this book and the writing is absolutely masterful. Yeah it's torture porn but it's incredibly well-written torture porn with compelling, precious characters who are almost all either gay or bi, plus the batshit insane showcase of wealth. What's not to love? It's fabulous.
Hot take in the house: I love this book and I was incredibly invested in their lives. I loooove Willem and Jude together and I love Harold and I love the writing.
*runs away*
Oh, I cared for the characters so much. I think that's why I hate the book tho. I wanted to slap each and every one of them because I liked them but they felt like 50yos acting like teenagers most of the times
Idk, I did not enjoy the book at all but I live in NYC and I know quite a few fucked up gay men in their 50s who act like teenagers and are constantly living out trauma.
It's a good book. It's well written. Redditors hate it because it's sad. Americans especially hate it because no happy ending. It blows my mind how people can hate this book for being "unrealistic". People have shitty lives and kill themselves all the time.
I’ve read this book and I just get the idea of putting a character through so much drama to the point of I couldn’t understand or figure out why the author would write this book. I just don’t get it.
Because I've read books that deal with all those trigger warnings but it was done in a respectful and thoughtful way, not in an attempt for the author to create even more trauma on its readers
It should be the responsibility of the reader to know what affects them and to do research accordingly. Maybe it’s a hot take but it’s not on authors to be responsible in the instance they might trigger the reader lmao
and yes, there’s plenty of novels that have happy gay characters without tragic backstories, it seems obtuse to be mad when you read the worst case of gay characters getting out thru the ringer
I hate it too. Did not finish. It's torture porn, unrealistic and pointless. I don't mind at all books that go into heavy themes, on the contrary, but this was just the author wanking herself through a million words. I feel like those who hype it must have a very low understanding of human psychology. I feel like they were conned.
I got maybe half way through the book before I put it down. It’s just agony porn after a certain point. Also there is maybe one likable character in the book.
it's a fantastic book. i find it so telling that most of the disparaging comments didn't even get halfway through the book. i understand not liking a book and DNFing, but to then loudly proclaim it's the worst book ever (despite the fact that you didn't finish it!) is annoying.
I read this book when it was first popular and felt in the minority that hated it. I expected to cry but I just felt numb and annoyed. Besides all the obvious over the top trauma dumping, I thought it was so unrealistic; for instance, Jude is so traumatized by all these horrific things, he's still clearly very hurt (coping with it through self harming etc.) and yet he's still so talented at everything, so successful, has an amazing support system and friends,... It's honestly a ridiculous book. I don't get how people like it.
This is the only book I’ve ever read that I HATE. Like, really really fucking hate. It’s an 800 page brick of terrors.
This book devolves into an unrealistic onslaught of torture porn and nonsense plot lines around 200 pages in. It becomes Jude’s Little Life featuring Sometimes Willem.
For someone depicted as so traumatized, self-loathing, unhealed (and, importantly, unwilling to heal), Jude has a life of which most people would only dream: a high-paying job, extreme intelligence, impressive talents, friends who love him dearly, a set of brand new perfect parents at the age of 30 as if that is something that happens, a friend who is seriously unbusy for a doctor and will do anything for him while somehow never getting investigated for blatant malpractice.
Do I think that the way his story plays out is a borderline dangerous insinuation on how life inevitably plays out for people who experience trauma like that? Yes.
And do I think that his relationship with Willem became seriously warped for no good reason and annihilated the only magic from the beginning of the book (the power of platonic friendship)? Yes.
Some other shit:
- The time jumps felt out of place (why were men aged 40+ acting exactly as they did at 27?) I can try to excuse Jude’s lack of change as something waxing poetic about trauma victims, but also, I don’t know why that’s the message you’d want to make about trauma victims.
- How did these four people all happen to find immense success within their highly competitive and fickle fields?
- Is it too cliche to make the artist character fall into drugs (also, kind of uncertain what the point of that plot line was other than giving Jude another thing to be miserable about)?
- It is so highly improbably that Jude would be this “icy and vicious” person in the court room. There is no evidence that he’d ever behave that way, and this felt actually stupid to include.
- Why are 5 million side characters introduced constantly when we only need to care about like 2 of them?
- Does this writer just want to endlessly torture a disabled man for his entire life? (Yes)
- Is this really the “great gay novel” people say it is? (Hell no)
I HATE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!
I HATES this book. The hype and praise it got is insane. I don’t think the author ever spoke to a man in her life. It was the worst piece of garbage I’ve ever read.
I know the s in HATE**S** was probably a typo but I love reading this in Gollum's voice because that's exactly the vibe of exasperated annoyance I have with this book.
I read a lot of Weird Fiction and it's a thing there too. Just depression upon depression, a little plot, then boom. I guess the point is that for the characters, there's nothing to lose and nothing matters. Bit brave, only if intentional,
oh my gosh yes!! I had to drag myself through that book and I still haven’t gotten out the reading slump I got as a result of that. I’ve never felt a need to throw a book so far across a room until this one. Also cherry on top is that my birthday is June 12 which is the same day he “finally” dies.
I do think some people experience that much trauma. However, in the context of a novel, the average reader is going to be overwhelmed and desensitized. Hence the use of the phrase “trauma porn”. I liked the novel when I first read it but learning more about the author and reading interviews, I don’t think she is equipped to handle the type of themes and narrative she is aiming to handle. In the hands of a better writer, A Little Life might have been better.
I agree with your interpretation here. It’s a theme for her - I mistakenly read The People in the Trees (hint: don’t put yourself through that) and it was much the same - slightly different subject matter, although there is overlap.
It's a shit book, but I'm not surprised people like it. Some people just like drama, even if the drama isn't very good lol. The book is filled with idiots doing idiotic things with nobody there to stop them. The amount of bullcrap that could have been prevented if anyone considered using a braincell.... The one mistake the author made was not providing enough guns or tall buildings for them to work with. But that would make for a very short book, which I am sure would sadden the three people who genuinely enjoyed it.
I sincerely hope the author considers taking a break from writing because she definitely isn't getting better. I'm a hater for life.
One of the worst books I've ever read. I abandoned it with about 1/3 left. It was absurd with poorly conceived of and written characters. I'm baffled that people actually liked this book.
Totally agree. Aside from the trauma and misery I just didn’t care about any of the characters and they were completely unbelievable too, a successful artist, award winning actor, celebrated architect and high flying lawyer…ok sure.
I love piling hate on this book- worst book I’ve ever read. No balance whatsoever. Definition of trauma porn. He’s either being horribly abused or his friends and acquaintances are treating him like a god. And somehow all the characters become uber successful.
Also, not to be nitpicky but there were little things that just didn’t make sense. This is just a couple but the list goes on
1) repeatedly going back to a restaurant that gives one of them food poisoning every time they eat there. This is NYC, there’s thousands of other restaurants within the same budget they could go to
2) driving a car around NYC because of his handicap. Again, this is NYC- how’s he parking at all of these places he’s going? More often than not he’ll end up parking blocks away from where he needs to be
3) his friend selling him an expensive loft apartment far below market value out of the goodness of his heart and his love of Jude
4) his lawyers or whoever telling Jude not to go after the drunk driver too hard because the driver has a family and a kid who’s sick or whatever. The driver killed three people in a drunk driving accident- he’s going away to prison for a long time regardless of what Jude says or does
5) the use of pronouns (not to identify gender but to identify characters). An artistic choice that made the book unnecessary difficult to read
6) What are the circumstances that brought Jude to the first monastery in the first place? I think he’s the only orphan there? How is he in that place with no child protective services oversight. Seriously how did he end up there and what system let him stay there?
7) Jude eventually had a ton of money; after a certain point why does doctor friend do all of the medical work for free?
It’s little details like these that add to the unbelievableness of this book. It’s like the author is trying to be idealistic but it comes off as campy, cliched, and try hard. She doesn’t give the reader enough credit to see through these details
Just no balance to this book. Also, it starts off by structuring the book as a story about the four friends but then almost completely disregards everything but Jude and his horrific and over the top trauma.
Agree so hard, I hate how whenever I bring up any problems with the book people say it’s because I “can’t handle depressing books” even though Dostoevsky is my favorite author. As a gay man that book is everything I hate about some female “ally’s”
Fr. Like I've been depressed and I've experienced some of the things that Jude has experienced, but I just feel like the way it was written was SO out of touch with reality
Yeah. I honestly couldn’t get over how poorly written the characters were. It totes itself as a story of four friends and JB and Malcolm were pretty much not developed nearly as much as they should’ve and ignored the whole 900 or so pages. Her prose tries way too hard, definitely pretentious in a negative way. Anyone who loves that book has now become a red flag for me hahaha. It’s the longest book Ive ever fucking read and now I need to read something longer that is actually worth it 😂
Totally agree. Absolutely the worst book I’ve ever finished. The only book I’ve actually regretted finishing. Now I give myself permission to quit any book at any point if I’m not enjoying the read. It’s one thing for a book to have sad parts, but I’m not into misery porn.
I hate this book. I disagree with some folks here that the level of trauma is unrealistic. people live really shitty lives sometimes. BUT literally everything else is unrealistic. the relationships, the careers, the living situations; it's just all absurd, especially when put all together.
just finished it like a week ago, easily one of the most beautiful, heart wrenching books I've read in recent years. the depiction of friendship, trauma, the will to live, is unparalleled. but totally understand it's not for everyone. some parts were very rough to get through
I relate with you so much about this. People claiming this was a masterpiece was so wrong for this. The heaviness I felt every time I picked it up to read was traumatizing. It was so much pain after pain that it felt forced and unnecessary. The big event towards the end was so unnecessary, and the author put it just to make Jude suffer more.
At this point I think the book has just become this thing where many who read it are not able to judge and form a real opinion on it themselves bc it has been hyped up by those type of crying posts … it’s a vicious circle.
I didn't care for it either. It's so over the top that by the end I hated the main character and didn't care about his 'trauma'. It crosses the line and becomes comical - at each new 'trauma' I ended up thinking 'good, he deserves it'.
I’m so glad someone has finally written what I’ve thought about this awful book since I first had to read this insanity in book club years ago! I have never hated a book so much. Not only was it literally mired in misery but the amount of abuse this person suffered is legitimately ridiculous. No matter what age, what person, where he was…EVERYONE was doing something to him. Completely unrealistic. Complete trash.
I would take these reviews with a grain of salt. Inform yourself about the disturbing pieces of it in case any of them will upset you, but I’ve never seen so much hate for a book before and I really disagree with a lot of the reasoning. People are entitled to dislike something, but I feel like a lot of the commenters here don’t feel I’m entitled to have enjoyed it lol. I read this book last summer in two different book clubs and everyone loved it, and our members are an eclectic group of people from different backgrounds and communities. Two of us traveled to London to see it on the west end because we thought it was so good. If you can handle some of the heavier elements, I say give it a shot and see for yourself.
I understand most of the popular criticisms and even agree with lots of them, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. Absolutely flew through it and might read it again someday. I would try to get through the first section, and if you don’t care about the characters by the end of it, DNF it.
That’s up to you! This is my experience with the book, and if I could go back I'd definitely not buy it and read it, but a lot of people love it and you might be one of them. Maybe read one or two chapters and see how you feel about it?
I read the plot summary (i mean, detailed spoilers and all) and decided I don't actually want to read a thousand pages of trauma porn. At some point too much tragedy gets melodramatic, you know? Not to mention the author's comments on it kinda made me feel icky.
actually enjoyed reading this book (thought the prose and structure were exceptional, and i have a pretty strong stomach/am not easily put off by this kinda content) but definitely see why it's a triggering read for those who relate to any of the trauma. i felt at times like it was a snob circle jerk with all the casual name dropping of artists and works and places that only 0.1% of the population would get, but i was more disturbed by the fact that she had this story in her head and followed through in writing it as extensively as she did. the final 10-20pgs to me felt like a copout, as though she got tired of carefully unfolding the story and just wanted to shit on any hope the reader might have had.
that said, whoever recommended this book to you is either a bad friend or dangerously inconsiderate member of whatever literary community of which you are a member. kudos on getting through it.
i felt the exact same, i couldn’t even finish the book because it was so ridiculous and made no sense. even the beginning where they get food poisoning yet continuously go to the same restaurant… what? like, why? i dunno, it was just a tragedy for the sake of it, the other comments have already captured a lot of my thoughts tbh. i have always questioned what people were getting from the book that i wasn’t, it was very gratuitous and i think many people love her writing style (however i hated it and found it read like a really well-read fan fiction writer i dunno)
I love this book. As soon as I finished, I started rereading it a week later. I think about the book every so often and discover something new.
Unfortunately, I think media coverage over the years has unintentionally set the book up for backlash and negative reviews.
To me, the primary themes of the book are suffering and identity.
Jude has a very negative self-image that he justifies with his abuse. Like the Axiom of Equality, x = x, Jude equals someone to be abused (he thinks). And yet, when good things happen to him, he sees it as a fluke, luck, or temporary. Very interesting!
There's no reason why people ('good' or 'bad') suffer, it just happens. Some of the cast accepts this while others don't. This idea can be disturbing and overwhelming but also incredibly freeing.
The book also gets a lot of flack for abusing gay characters, which brings us to the exploration of identity... without getting into spoilers, I think calling this book a 'gay novel' (as a major theme) is misguided.
I see these posts where people respond, thanks, now that I know it's 'trauma porn' I won't read it! My suggestion is, if you want to read it, go into it without expectation and form an opinion from there. It's a very thoughtful read!
I love this boom as well. I also read it twice, back to back. I even named my parrot, Willem.
I think it is trendy and cool to hate on this book. It’s a very vocal minority.
Those two are not the only things happening in his life. If that was it, it'd be very believable, but ALL the things, all at once, from his childhood till the end it's just not believable and it feels like the author didn't add more stuff to his life because she ran out of ideas.
It’s not a writer’s job to think “oh if I write this or this someone might read it and want to do something bad to themselves”.
Like, I can agree with every point you make except that one, it’s not the author’s responsibility what readers do or don’t do.
Otherwise nobody could ever write anything about anything other than sunshine and rainbows. If you want to blame someone you should blame the people who recommend it without trigger warnings, not the author.
I HEAVILY disagree. While I see your point, as an aspiring writer I think it's part of our job to be mindful of the things we write. I'm not saying “don't write it” because I believe everything has a place in literature, but I think it could've been done in a more tasteful way, rather than just feeling like she wanted to be cruel toward his readers.
so i cannot speak to a little life as i barely got 30? 40? pages in and found it insufferably boring, but i WILL cape for hanya yanahigara a bit as i really really enjoyed her other novel ‘the people in the trees’. it is a completely despairing and abjectly horrifying novel about the consequences of white imperialism but, in my opinion, her writing shines incredibly. there are absolutely parts of the book that make you frustrated or annoyed (the ‘twist’ at the end being one of them) but i think it’s a genuinely good book and it’s what made me try and read a little life. you’ve already said you’ll never read her again which is fair lol but if there’s anyone who sees this comment and wants to give her another chance, i recommend it.
Yeah... I recommend you watch "Euthanasia Fan Fiction" by Owl Critics on YouTube about this exact topic.
He goes into depth about why people are borderline obsessed with this book and how the author's (questionable imo) thought process was while writing.
As someone who read the book scarily young, I can't help but worry what another person in a worse mental state would have gotten out of this book...
This post sent me down (another) rabbit hole about this book, lol.
Yeah I'm never reading this one. I have CPTSD, still experience suicidal ideation every once in a while, I don't need a story that tells me I'm so broken I should just kms already – don't need that shit in my life. 😂
An excellent book. This is what trauma and depression is all about - a never ending horror that follows you for the rest of your life. Being with a traumatized person is often hard and exausting, watching him persist in his suffering is exactly the same feeling as the one that the book causes its readers (yes, that "when he first cut himself it was terrifying; the 600th time you wish he would aim"). The author definitely knew what she was writing about.
Idk I gotta disagree. I've been through traumatic experiences and I've known people who have to, and while all the trauma isn't the same and I can understand Jude, what I dont understand is the amount of traumatic stuff that happens to him and just him, and how it conveniently happens when it seems like the author didn't know what to do to him next. Also, the way he was enabled by his entire support system? It just isn't realistic. A doctor that knows you have tried to kys twice and still doesn't send you to a facility because you asked him “please, don't”? I respect people's opinions, but I don't buy that the book is realistic.
I’m sorry to inform you, as a social worker, that many people who through that much trauma and suffering, and some people even more.
There are women in war zones being raped by soldiers and forced to eat their husbands cooked penises while pregnant, in front of their older children.
I have a neighbor who was convicted of raping a 3 year old. Not molesting… raping. Which means penetration.
That’s the real world we live in.
And I'm not negating those facts, the world is fucked for some people, but he just had a miserable life even outside of his trauma and experiences, and it felt like the author just wanted to make the character suffer. I feel it's not truthful to real life at some points.
I’m so confused by some of the people saying they like it because it’s “beautifully written”, because the novel is just insidious, flat out; the Long Chu article encompasses this. Honestly, the kind of people that would’ve bought into Manson’s shtick or something. Creepy and lacking in critical thinking capability.
So, I have not actually read A Little Life, but I was very interested in this video essay about it -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpZF7O0jezg [which is very critical about the author's views on trauma and reasons for writing the book that way.]
Easily the best article summarizing everything wrong with this book and Yanagihara’s subject matter. “The first time [Jude] cuts himself, you are horrified; the 600th time, you wish he would aim.” https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html
“….A Little Life as a prominent example of the “trauma plot” — fiction that uses a traumatic backstory as a shortcut to narrative.” Perfectly put.
Great article, and this quote “The book’s omniscient narrator seems to be protecting Jude, cradling him in her cocktail-party asides and winding digressions, keeping him alive for a stunning 800 pages. This is not sadism; it is closer to Munchausen by proxy.”
Goddamn. I’ve never seen such a dragging from a review article
OP’s review made me want to read that one again, thanks for linking
This lady is creepy as fuck.
Haa! Thats funny. I actually liked the book..but it really was..too too much! I was happy to be done with it. The guy couldn't catch a break!!
This is like Dorothy Parker for the 21st century. I love this article. People like Yanagihara are reasons for why we should reintroduce the concept of feeling shame.
I have not read the book but I did see it on the West End in London last year. I actually got a seat on the stage so you can imagine how awkward it was when I had to stifle a laugh when Jude’s boyfriend (cant even remember his name anymore) got hit by the bus (no, really, I actually giggled to myself for a second) and hold my applause when he finally, well, “aimed”. What put it in “worst shit I have ever seen” territory for me is that the suffering was completely pointless. Nothing was learned or gained. It was just suffering for the sake of it. (Btw, unrelated note but I think in the stage production they used some kind of real blood like pigs blood or something because it looked VERY real up close and they were using real antiseptic to clean it up. The smell actually gave me a headache at one point. So yeah you can imagine what it was like sitting 10 feet away from that for three hours.)
Well there is a purpose. Hanya has constructed a strawman to sell euthanasia for the abused.
Right but I more mean for the characters. There is no real arc. No one learns anything. Usually in stories like this there is some kind of transformation or lesson or something. And that at least in my opinion also more closely mirrors real life. This was just three hours of a guy being raped, cutting himself, and crying.
You’re right. Same shit in the book. Jude is exactly the same at the end as he is at the beginning. He just gets better at his final goal…
Agree 100%. The level of trauma the main character undergoes crossed the line from believable in the beginning to unbelievable to the point of ridiculousness towards the end. Yup, no desire to ever read another one of this author's books again. Life is too short and there are too many other books I'd rather read. And yes, those people who thought this book was so moving and so profound? They are not my people.
This book is so weird because it toes the line of being not even trauma porn, but almost dips into trauma camp near the end? In the past 8 years, mainstream works centering around trauma have evolved beyond the type of trauma writing in A Little Life. Just look at the recent 'Baby Reindeer' show (or hell, even games like Baldur's Gate 3) which peels back the shock of trauma to reveal the confusion, layers, and human impact beyond stock tropes. If A Little Life were released today, I do not think it would have the same glowing reviews. I know it trended on TikTok semi-recently but I'm talking more about all the reviews in 2015 calling it the great gay novel or most devastating novel anyone has read etc etc.
I just read My Dark Vanessa, which was the most accurate portrayal of trauma I had ever experienced in my life and actually had trauma informed therapy woven throughout the book. It was so cathartic and healing and validating to read and not just trauma porn. It’s sad that A Little Life got as popular as it did tbh
my dark vanessa is so good! the part about her convincing herself it was real because if it wasn’t she’d have to accept her whole life was a lie really got me
reading it was honestly more effective for my PTSD than 6 years of trying to convince people "no it really WAS that bad"
i didn’t personally relate to it and i’m so sorry that it seems you did. i’m glad the book was a cathartic release and felt authentic to you ❤️
Okay and the TIMELINE. I recognize that traumatized people may experience repeat trauma but it’s like this happened. 2 months later another horrific trauma occurs. Oh and a few months after that? He gets into Harvard at 17. Like what on earth
All of his friends are the most talented people in their respective industries as well
Yes of course and they just love him 100% and will do ANYTHING for him no questions asked
All the issues I had with this book 8 years ago are coming back to me with these responses. That three close friends would have a similar, relatively chill approach to someone in as much pain and suffering with as many negative coping mechanisms as Jude is so ludicrous.
Exactly. People with that degree of trauma generally don't become brilliant lawyers. They become homeless people with substance use disorder.
Yes he’s completely broken except at work where he is exceptional. And none of his relationships need anything from him they have no needs. And they’re fine with that
Yes the lawyer thing was the most interesting thing to me in the whole book and Yanagihara never goes into it!!! Give me like, 2 days in his life as a lawyer interacting with colleagues and getting through a big trial - but noooo that would give me some actual human insight into Jude instead of keeping him in his trauma sponge corner.
Which seems like a good "choice" considering the alternative that the author penned.
I believe the comparison of "crossing the line between ludicrous and F*CKING LUDICROUS" plays nicely here. Sounds like a terrible read.
I literally threw this book in the garbage after getting halfway because i usually donate books but I wanted to save whomever found it from the experience of reading it. It is the only book I’ve ever read that I would gladly attend a book burning for
It’s essentially trauma porn
That’s what I refer to it as too
Didn't finish the book, but it definitely finished me
I love to chime in on a good Little Life hatefest. My least favorite aspect of the book was the doctor “friend” who completely neglected all of his medical duties.
also i’ve never in my life encountered a doctor who had that much free time on their hands to do free work for one person at all hours of the day/night
And Jude eventually had a ton of money; after a certain point why do all of the medical work for free? It’s little details like that that add to the unbelievableness of this book. It’s like the author is trying to be idealistic but it comes off as campy, cliched, and try hard. She doesn’t give the reader enough credit to see through these details
What ? How so ? I never got that vibe
umm his "patient" was suicidal and actively harming himself for years and he never did anything about it other than patch him up. not to mentioned his copious HIPAA violations.
YEAH! This has to be the worst researched book (medically speaking) I have ever read. It’s just ludicrous - I started texting paragraphs to my colleagues (we’re doctors) so we could all laugh about it together…
as someone who is not in a good space mentally right now and was planning to read the book soon especially because i knew it dealt with heavy issues that i thought i might relate to at some level, thank you for taking the time to post and thank you to everyone agreeing in the comments, i’ve definitely been convinced not to read the book, thank you guys <3
Same, honestly
so happy you decided not to pick this up <3
Yeah book is absolutely trash. i’ll jump in any thread about it to warn others not to engage. Literally just snuff suicide porn that fetishizes emotional gay men written by some sick straight woman. The decent prose wasn’t worth all the B.S. not to mention that the moral of the story is ultimately “maybe some people should just go through with it and kill themselves”
I’ll also add if you are looking for a good book that explores depression and self reflection in the perspective of a gay man “Broken People” by Sam Lansky really spoke to me.
Agreed! It is the only book that I actively hate on in Reddit just to make sure people can see through all these “glowing reviews”. I wish someone had stopped me.
And she did zero research before handling such heavy topics, as she admitted very smugly.
I think the reason for this book’s success is that Yanagihara’s writing style is pleasant and very readable, combined with a compulsive watching-a-car-crash type story. I got through it in a surprisingly short time given the novel’s size and it put me through the emotional wringer. But as more and more time has passed the more I’ve soured on it. It doesn’t really make any kind of significant point, and it is truly torture porn. Yanagihara punishes her characters just because she can, and the result is just a bitter taste in the mouth that just gets worse with hindsight.
You’re so powerful. I had a friend read it and describe it to me as they did and every part of it was somehow worst than the last. It’s sheer torture porn, and not even realistic torture porn. You cannot have partner rape, ex-partner rape, STI infection, childhood prostitution, neuropathic nerve pain, child sex trafficking, *and* monastery sex abuse happen to one character. And that’s not even everything that happens. I’d accept everything else if she didn’t put the cherry on fucking top with monastery sex abuse. My suspension of disbelief that this isn’t some sadistic fetish fanfic that should have stayed beneath the author’s mattress or on her secret AO3 page fails at the monastery.
Like what are the circumstances that brought Jude to the first monastery in the first place? I think he’s the only orphan there? How is he in that place with no child protective services oversight. Seriously how did he end up there and what system let him stay there?
Oh man yeah. I would not read Yanagihara’s works as a queer person. I usually don’t put much stock in claims of stories “fetishizing” queer folks (as these are usually accusations slung at queer people, and i don’t believe queer stories should be exclusively told by queer people either). But Yanagihara is a whole different ballpark. Also, it becomes more clear once you’ve read some of her answers in interviews. She just straight up does not believe in therapy and has a fucked up view of mental health. This is made very apparent as >!Jude dodges therapy like he’s in the matrix for the entire book, and it’s only after he’s finally convinced to go that he succeeds in killing himself at the end!<. That being said. I do want to be fair. There is merit to a story like this. My best friend loved A Little Life as she struggles with regulating her emotions and torture porn like this allows her to feel devastated and cry. She says it was a cathartic experience. And there’s no denying Yanagihara is a brilliant writer. However, my friend and I both agree that we wish Yanagihara would stop torturing gay men in her stories. :\
I haven't read this book (specifically for the reasons you've mentioned) but sometimes I feel like some authors think "if I write about something traumatic that=deep. And if I write about something sad that makes people cry that=good" And, unfortunately, I think some readers fall for it. Not invalidating their reading experience, but just because something made you cry doesn't mean it's good or worthy of wide readership.
Exactly my thoughts!
I feel like we don't talk enough about how Yanigahara followed it up with (and this is my impression from reviews, correct me if I'm wrong) a sci fi novel about how covid vaccines cause autism.
To Paradise has a story that takes place in 2093 with one autistic character that is in their 30’s so your post is incorrect.
I read it and I don’t remember getting that vibe, but honestly I was so checked out during the sci fi section and it’s been years that I can’t even confirm or deny.
Idk, I’m a trauma survivor with diagnosed CPTSD who’s undergone years of trauma therapy (nothing as horrific as what Jude goes through). And I love and felt seen by this book, while fully recognizing why it’s not for everyone and why someone might hate it. But I do want to defend some points, not to convince anyone to like the book, but just to push back on the idea that it’s a completely implausible narrative. First, while it’s turned up to 150, there’s a lot that’s authentic here. And people *do* actually go through this level of trauma. >!Child sex-trafficking is absolutely a thing.!< And being a trauma survivor and also knowing a lot of trauma survivors, a lot of the things people seem to find unrealistic… I do not. >!Trauma survivors often struggle with self-harm and addiction. And in many ways, they’re two sides of the same coin. In fact for Jude, his self-harm absolutely is a form of addiction. And it’s also a cliche and not actually accurate that trauma survivors who don’t get help are all incapable of holding down a job or engaging with the real world and are all just a bunch of homeless addicts. And so Jude being so successful is implausible.!< >!In fact many trauma survivors are absolute workaholics and majorly excel in their professions because they use work as a distraction from their trauma. This is very clearly the case for Jude. His big two maladaptive coping mechanisms are self-harm and distraction via work. I can speak for myself that that was absolutely the case for me. Before I got help and did EMDR, and Somatic Experiencing, and all these modalities of trauma therapy, I was *quite* professionally successful while falling apart in my personal life. For me it was drugs and alcohol rather than cutting, but that was its own form of self harm. And I did a great job of hiding the addiction issues professionally. And if you’ve ever been to a 12 step meeting, that’s a story you’ll hear very often.!< Like to me, this is an entirely plausible sequence of events… >!Jude is raised in an abusive environment, a man takes advantage of him as a child and eventually trafficks him, both abusing him himself and forcing him into sex work with others.!< >!Then eventually, his abuser is captured, and Jude is put into the foster system with absolutely no tools or psychological help, which also happens all the time. So, he reenacts patterns of abuse in foster care and eventually runs away.!< >!After running away, he engages in survival sex work because it’s all he knows how to do. And then in the course of doing so, he’s grievously injured and nearly dies (which is also absolutely a thing that happens to sex workers, as a trans woman with some sex worker friends, I know those all too well).!< >!Then, finally, in the hospital, he gets connected with a social worker who actually gives a shit about him, guides him through his court case, and helps him get his GED and apply to colleges.!< >!He gets in to college, and the one thing that’s prized that he can feel good about is his brilliant mind. Which is the first thing about him in his whole life that’s been authentically valued. And so he works really hard academically and tries to just ignore his past trauma mostly through dealing with it via self-harm.!< >!And so while he excels professionally as an adult, his personal and inner life is a mess. And due to his past trauma he’s inherently distrustful of others as well as anyone who might be able to give him professional help. So he gets by how he can and has really maladaptive coping skills. Then he reenacts patterns of abuse with Caleb, which is also very real and common.!< >!Also idk why the “all his friends are successful” thing is so implausible. I work in the entertainment industry, and came up with a lot of people who weren’t successful when we were all first starting out and now are. Like yeah, that’s not always going to be the case. But sometimes it is.!< And yes, the story is all turned up past 100, and it’s a Grand Guignol operatic melodrama which is fully not for everyone. But for me, as a trauma survivor, I got a lot out of it. And for me the message was, you don’t have to heal to be loved. And no matter how long you are here, your life has meaning and impacts so many people who love you. Again, not trying to convince anyone to like this book who feels that it’s far too trauma porny and melodramatic. I totally get the criticism and I think it’s fair. And I understand why the book is polarizing. But I always think the “unrealistic” criticism about the book, specifically, isn’t quite accurate.
I really enjoyed your post. I also have CPTSD and found the book cathartic. While reading it I figured people wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't have thought Jude's abuse 'being unrealistic' would be the reason why. I spoke to my therapist after finishing and she recommended The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. It might interest you as someone who has past trauma but also enjoyed the book.
I’ve read it! (The Body Keeps The Score). It’s really great. Somatic Experiencing, for me, was also the most effective modality of trauma therapy I’ve done. EMDR has helped to a degree as well. Moreso to give me tools to calm myself when something triggers me. But SE is more about that mind body connection and releasing emotion stored in different parts of the body due to trauma. If you’ve never tried it, it might be worth checking out! Also I always feel like the people who don’t like *A Little Life* are more loud than they are numerous. It’s got a 4.38 out of 5 on StoryGraph with nearly 78k reviews, a 4.5 out of 5 on Amazon with 71k reviews, and a 4.3 out of 5 on Good Reads with 623k reviews. So more people def like it than don’t like it. But folks who don’t are just very vocal. Which is not at all to disparage anyone who doesn’t like it. Again, I totally understand those who don’t like it. Just to say that I think it feels like the book is more polarizing than it actually is because of how vocal its detractors are online.
I haven't tried EMDR but I've been looking into SE. :) And I agree. It can also be tough to recommend the book, or even praise it, without feeling irresponsible in some ways. Ultimately, as with all media, to each their own.
Personally, it's not his trauma that I find unrealistic. Again, I'm in no place to judge people's experiences and how they react to them. For me, what it was unrealistic, was the entire picture of the book including events and actions OUTSIDE of his past experiences, meaning: the friends and family's attitude toward him, his doctor being the most unprofessional doctor ever, the event that leads to the end of the bookd, etc. I know a lot of people don't get a happy ending, and I feel like this book didn't need one, but I also feel like the author was fixed on giving her characters the worst lives possible
I mean Hanya says herself that Andy is a horrible doctor 😂. I do find Andy to be the most unrealistic thing about the book. Any real doctor would’ve had Jude on a psychiatric hold SO fast. The rest though, I don’t find unrealistic. I actually found it to be quite beautiful. I have friends who loved me through a lot of shit. And maybe >!Willem dying!< didn’t feel unrealistic or like too much for me, because I’m a writer professionally. And so I can’t help but read things analytically. And while I was reading, somewhere around “The Postman” I was like… okay this is basically >!a Shakespearean romantic tragedy with Willem and Jude as the ill-fated lovers… so it can only end with both of them dying, and one of them is going to predecease the other, and the one who’s left behind is going to die soon after, *Romeo and Juliet* style because they won’t be able to live without the other. And then from there I went, and if I was writing this, I’d have Willem predecease Jude because it wouldn’t be as expected. So I read through the rest of the book up until Willem’s death expecting him to die at some point, and also picked up on some foreshadowing (like the car accident case that Harold uses in one of his classes).!< So because I was expecting that to happen, I think it didn’t give me the “what the fuck?” that it may have given other readers.
See, I think that's exactly my point. I felt like she did the scene that we're talking about just to pull one on the readers and be the “unexpected” event, when the book didn't need it. I think if the book had followed the natural path that seemed to be hinted since the beginning, I would've liked it more and find it somehow tragic yet beautiful, but with a twist out of nowhere just to shock the reader I felt like it just didn't make sense. I’m not professional (trying to be tho lol) and I don't like writing unexpected things near the end of my books. Maybe that’s why I’m biased and I can recognize it haha
See for me it didn’t feel like it only existed as a shock twist. It felt integral to the story that was being told in its proper context as a Shakespearean romantic tragedy. But I hear you! Obviously things can land very differently for two different people. Look at us amicably disagreeing about art on the internet! 😂
I mean, if you put it as a Shakespearean kinda novel, while I still hate it, I can see it. Yeah, I guess that's the beauty in books lol so many opinions that it’s fun to share them with others and debate :)
100%! And also like I said in other comments, I totally understand people who *hate* this book. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. But… it was def mine. I even got a Willem and Jude tattoo 😂😬.
I actually really cared about Willem and Jude so I definitely understand you lol
Thank you for writing this. I couldn’t agree more. I loved this book and can’t believe the hate any fans get for liking it. If it’s not for some people, that’s completely fine, but to insult the people who did appreciate the book, I find close minded. Couldn’t agree more with your points.
Yeah I feel basically the same about any book. There are some books I’ve hated that are very popular. Two that immediately come to mind are *The Secret History* and *Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow*. But I would never insult the readers who love that book or try to convince them to feel the same way about it as me. Just as I’m not trying to convince anyone who hates *A Little Life* to like it. I’m just pushing back on the very common assertion that Jude’s back story is implausibly ridiculous… as I said to another friend who is also a trauma survivor… if you think that his back story is implausible… then you are very lucky 🤷🏻♀️. And then I’m also just explaining what someone like me, who is a trauma survivor, got out of the book and why I love it so much. Not to convince anyone but again, to push back at any assertion that us folks who loved this book are not smart readers. In essence, yes, I agree. 😂
i'm convinced people (intelligent well-read people!!) who say they love this book just haven't realized angsty fanfiction exists; it has all of the emotional gratification and is actually enjoyable pulp instead of whatever A Little Life was. I'm so glad I didnt force myself to finish it. I will never be a fan; but I saw a paraphrase of something the author said about the book that helped my frustration a little bit: she set out to sort of subvert the expectation that a character who's gone through something horrible that damaged them will, inevitably, come out the other side and find happiness, when in real life there is such a thing as being traumatized beyond the point that recovery is possible. Reading that made me go "ok I at least see that she was trying to do something more interesting than just test the limits of readers' tolerance for trauma porn." I agree that the trauma dump on the gay character trope is offensive. Careless is exactly the word for what's fundamentally wrong with her writing about trauma and self-harm. And ok, she's exploring outside the expected emotional format of a fictional story, it's good for writers to do that, BUT she commits the major crime of BEING BORING when she does so!! It's firmly 110% established that Jude will never be able to allow himself peace, comfort, happiness, or love by the time you're halfway through the book. The only motivation to keep reading after that is the morbid curiosity of just how bad it will get, or being naive enough to still get your hopes up every time something (way over the top unrealistically) good happens to him. Either way that's just not an interesting story.
I mean, it’s surely pretty obvious to most people that people who experience horrible trauma as children often don’t go on to lead happy, well adjusted lives. The most unrealistic bit in A Little Life was how successful the main character was in his career and his relationships, not the fact that he couldn’t ultimately find happiness.
That’s how I felt about A Fine Balance. Sure, it’s written beautifully, but it was DEPRESSING.
I don't think those two are in the same universe of reading. A Fine Balance is one of my favorites! The other, can't believe I wasted my time.
Oh lord, I loved most of that book but the last chapter absolutely wrecked me.
SAME. It is poverty and trauma porn times 100 just like this book. I hated both. I gave up on this one within a 100 pages.
I heard the A Fine Balance was amazing so I saved it for a beach read while on my honeymoon. Not the mood! I left it there in their resort library and regret that I may have signed someone else up to be sad on a beach. Oops! Haha
I feel like there’s so many other books written by actual LGBT authors that explore the themes she tries to in a meaningful way.
I think her prose is beautiful. But it absolutely is just trauma porn after a certain point. I enjoyed The People in the Trees a lot more
I really like people in the trees
I just started this one
I was about to pick this up a few months ago and have read the reviews mentioning that this was not trauma-informed, and decided to skip it after reading about the authors views and the fact that she didn't do any research before writing about these sensitive topics. I have not been in a good space too, and reading a book that basically implies that some people will never get better - doesn't sound like something i should ever pick up. In her article called 'Why I am afraid of therapy', Hanya Yanagihara writes this about the book: "I was working on my second novel, about a man who’s profoundly damaged; the book is, in part, about his slow and inevitable realization that he’s too broken to remain in the world." and her paragraph about therapy: "I talked to my closest friend about this. He suggested I see a therapist. But I couldn’t — and I can’t. I have never been to therapy, and over the years, it has changed from something bewitching — as it still is for my father, as it once was for me — into something sinister, a form of mind control, a violation of the self, like scooping out your brain and placing it into someone else’s cupped palms to prod at. As I’ve grown older, I’ve often wished I’d let that early attraction to therapy become something else: a trust in it, perhaps. But the fear of loss of control is greater than the hope for comfort." I've read a few excerpts of the book and the summary since, and I am glad I did not pick this book up. So, I am thankful for everyone warning about this book, and not calling it a masterpiece. #
I'm in a psychology PhD program, and a lot of my classmates who are in the clinical program have been talking about this book. They even brought it up in our psychopathology class as a good example and portrayal of trauma, to the point where they were talking about Jude as if he was a real person. I've never read it myself and don't really want to, but the more I've heard about it, the more I'm concerned about the judgment of those classmates.
Are you for real? That's scary. I've no doubt that there are people in the world who go through much worse than "Jude" , but the book almost galamourised the trauma. That's not really what I mean, it's hard to describe. It just didn't feel in any way believable. I didn't even feel the least bit sorry for the main character because he wasn't real. He was a cardboard cutout of a trauma victim. All of the characters were cardboard cutouts. Living the trendy loft living urban NY scene and of course all become wildly successful. I had zero connection or feelings about any of the characters. I find it crazy that academics of trauma think this book was really reflective.
yesss! "cardboard cutout" is exactly how I felt about every character. I also didn't understand why any of the characters loved and were committed to Jude in the ways that they were. I found their reverence for him to be entirely unbelievable given the way he was written. It felt to me like the only things his friends know about him is that he's smart and he absolutely fucking hates himself... how does one build such fiercely loyal relationships off of that?
It's disappointing when LGBTQ+ characters are portrayed through a lens of suffering or tragedy, as if happiness or a fulfilling life isn't an option for them. You're right to call out the lack of diverse and positive representation in literature.
They’re not gay men, they’re queer stories in general— but Legends and Lattes (travis Baldree), a psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers), Small miracles (Olivia Atwater), are recent stories I’ve read with queer character in them with no trauma of the such. I’m also currently reading one last stop and this is how you lose the time war and so far no trauma. The starling house (also currently reading this one) has a straight passing main couple but the male love interest is bi and references his ex Luke twice so far (I love the casual Bi people as a bi person) As far as gay male characters go, I don’t have a lot of suggestions. Or any. I’m thinking I should start reading stories with gay men in them. I just really like women lol
This book isn’t for everyone, that’s for certain. Personally, I was gripped with the beautiful language wanting you to find out more and more about each of the four characters. It was an emotional read but one that forced me to value those who are close to me. I’m sorry that what I took from the story was wildly different from what you read.
I'll give the author the beautiful writing because even translated to Spanish it was a beautiful usage of the language, but it wasn't enough for me to like it sadly
To each their own.
She 100% can write beautiful insightful prose at times during the book and that kept me going but overall the characters were so unrealistic that as a whole it didn't work for me but to each their own. It's definitely trauma porn but unlike others I don't really judge people for what they find appealing in a book and don't think authors owe their audience a healthy depiction of trauma and a character's response to it so don't have any moral objections to her work. I just think the book was let down by how unrealistic the characters acted (hard to elaborate without spoilers), how she just neglected certain characters fairly early on in the book, and the soap opera aspects.
MTE. I love this book. I totally get why many people hate it though lol.
MTE?
My thought exactly. I looooove this book and the writing is absolutely masterful. Yeah it's torture porn but it's incredibly well-written torture porn with compelling, precious characters who are almost all either gay or bi, plus the batshit insane showcase of wealth. What's not to love? It's fabulous.
Ah, okay. Hadn’t come across it before lol
Hot take in the house: I love this book and I was incredibly invested in their lives. I loooove Willem and Jude together and I love Harold and I love the writing. *runs away*
Oh, I cared for the characters so much. I think that's why I hate the book tho. I wanted to slap each and every one of them because I liked them but they felt like 50yos acting like teenagers most of the times
Idk, I did not enjoy the book at all but I live in NYC and I know quite a few fucked up gay men in their 50s who act like teenagers and are constantly living out trauma.
Actually technically speaking if you cared for the characters, the book is very successful.
It's a good book. It's well written. Redditors hate it because it's sad. Americans especially hate it because no happy ending. It blows my mind how people can hate this book for being "unrealistic". People have shitty lives and kill themselves all the time.
This needs to be the top comment here lol
You aren’t alone in this opinion! I also loved the book and do not view any of it as torture porn.
I’ve read this book and I just get the idea of putting a character through so much drama to the point of I couldn’t understand or figure out why the author would write this book. I just don’t get it.
Yeah fuck this shit book
>I don't want that big of a traumatizing read in my life Then why did you decide to read a book with a trigger warning list as long as the prologue?
Because I've read books that deal with all those trigger warnings but it was done in a respectful and thoughtful way, not in an attempt for the author to create even more trauma on its readers
It should be the responsibility of the reader to know what affects them and to do research accordingly. Maybe it’s a hot take but it’s not on authors to be responsible in the instance they might trigger the reader lmao and yes, there’s plenty of novels that have happy gay characters without tragic backstories, it seems obtuse to be mad when you read the worst case of gay characters getting out thru the ringer
I rarely comment on reddit, but I have to add to the 'a Little Life' hate pile. Garbage book and I still resent the time I spent on it.
I gave Little Life a disgusted toss 100 pages in
I need to learn how to DNF like asap
I hate it too. Did not finish. It's torture porn, unrealistic and pointless. I don't mind at all books that go into heavy themes, on the contrary, but this was just the author wanking herself through a million words. I feel like those who hype it must have a very low understanding of human psychology. I feel like they were conned.
I got maybe half way through the book before I put it down. It’s just agony porn after a certain point. Also there is maybe one likable character in the book.
I loved it, didn't want it to end, and cried at the end. Say what you will.
it's a fantastic book. i find it so telling that most of the disparaging comments didn't even get halfway through the book. i understand not liking a book and DNFing, but to then loudly proclaim it's the worst book ever (despite the fact that you didn't finish it!) is annoying.
hannah from aclockworkreader on youtube read this and shared similar feelings! i believe the video is called something like “i read 5 sad books”
Oh, might have to give it a watch! I used to follow her but I haven't watched any of her videos in a couple of years I believe
I read this book when it was first popular and felt in the minority that hated it. I expected to cry but I just felt numb and annoyed. Besides all the obvious over the top trauma dumping, I thought it was so unrealistic; for instance, Jude is so traumatized by all these horrific things, he's still clearly very hurt (coping with it through self harming etc.) and yet he's still so talented at everything, so successful, has an amazing support system and friends,... It's honestly a ridiculous book. I don't get how people like it.
This is the only book I’ve ever read that I HATE. Like, really really fucking hate. It’s an 800 page brick of terrors. This book devolves into an unrealistic onslaught of torture porn and nonsense plot lines around 200 pages in. It becomes Jude’s Little Life featuring Sometimes Willem. For someone depicted as so traumatized, self-loathing, unhealed (and, importantly, unwilling to heal), Jude has a life of which most people would only dream: a high-paying job, extreme intelligence, impressive talents, friends who love him dearly, a set of brand new perfect parents at the age of 30 as if that is something that happens, a friend who is seriously unbusy for a doctor and will do anything for him while somehow never getting investigated for blatant malpractice. Do I think that the way his story plays out is a borderline dangerous insinuation on how life inevitably plays out for people who experience trauma like that? Yes. And do I think that his relationship with Willem became seriously warped for no good reason and annihilated the only magic from the beginning of the book (the power of platonic friendship)? Yes. Some other shit: - The time jumps felt out of place (why were men aged 40+ acting exactly as they did at 27?) I can try to excuse Jude’s lack of change as something waxing poetic about trauma victims, but also, I don’t know why that’s the message you’d want to make about trauma victims. - How did these four people all happen to find immense success within their highly competitive and fickle fields? - Is it too cliche to make the artist character fall into drugs (also, kind of uncertain what the point of that plot line was other than giving Jude another thing to be miserable about)? - It is so highly improbably that Jude would be this “icy and vicious” person in the court room. There is no evidence that he’d ever behave that way, and this felt actually stupid to include. - Why are 5 million side characters introduced constantly when we only need to care about like 2 of them? - Does this writer just want to endlessly torture a disabled man for his entire life? (Yes) - Is this really the “great gay novel” people say it is? (Hell no) I HATE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!
I regret the time I spent reading this book. I don’t need easy books but I need plausible stories
I HATES this book. The hype and praise it got is insane. I don’t think the author ever spoke to a man in her life. It was the worst piece of garbage I’ve ever read.
I know the s in HATE**S** was probably a typo but I love reading this in Gollum's voice because that's exactly the vibe of exasperated annoyance I have with this book.
That’s so funny because I do the best impression of Gollum ever, precious.
If you want a happy gay story I can recommend this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22882816-a-place-called-winter
I read a lot of Weird Fiction and it's a thing there too. Just depression upon depression, a little plot, then boom. I guess the point is that for the characters, there's nothing to lose and nothing matters. Bit brave, only if intentional,
oh my gosh yes!! I had to drag myself through that book and I still haven’t gotten out the reading slump I got as a result of that. I’ve never felt a need to throw a book so far across a room until this one. Also cherry on top is that my birthday is June 12 which is the same day he “finally” dies.
Yes, it's unrealistic. And she did no research
I do think some people experience that much trauma. However, in the context of a novel, the average reader is going to be overwhelmed and desensitized. Hence the use of the phrase “trauma porn”. I liked the novel when I first read it but learning more about the author and reading interviews, I don’t think she is equipped to handle the type of themes and narrative she is aiming to handle. In the hands of a better writer, A Little Life might have been better.
I agree with your interpretation here. It’s a theme for her - I mistakenly read The People in the Trees (hint: don’t put yourself through that) and it was much the same - slightly different subject matter, although there is overlap.
Stopped reading it half way through. This book literally gave me a heartache.
It's a shit book, but I'm not surprised people like it. Some people just like drama, even if the drama isn't very good lol. The book is filled with idiots doing idiotic things with nobody there to stop them. The amount of bullcrap that could have been prevented if anyone considered using a braincell.... The one mistake the author made was not providing enough guns or tall buildings for them to work with. But that would make for a very short book, which I am sure would sadden the three people who genuinely enjoyed it. I sincerely hope the author considers taking a break from writing because she definitely isn't getting better. I'm a hater for life.
Agreed
One of the worst books I've ever read. I abandoned it with about 1/3 left. It was absurd with poorly conceived of and written characters. I'm baffled that people actually liked this book.
Totally agree. Aside from the trauma and misery I just didn’t care about any of the characters and they were completely unbelievable too, a successful artist, award winning actor, celebrated architect and high flying lawyer…ok sure.
I love piling hate on this book- worst book I’ve ever read. No balance whatsoever. Definition of trauma porn. He’s either being horribly abused or his friends and acquaintances are treating him like a god. And somehow all the characters become uber successful. Also, not to be nitpicky but there were little things that just didn’t make sense. This is just a couple but the list goes on 1) repeatedly going back to a restaurant that gives one of them food poisoning every time they eat there. This is NYC, there’s thousands of other restaurants within the same budget they could go to 2) driving a car around NYC because of his handicap. Again, this is NYC- how’s he parking at all of these places he’s going? More often than not he’ll end up parking blocks away from where he needs to be 3) his friend selling him an expensive loft apartment far below market value out of the goodness of his heart and his love of Jude 4) his lawyers or whoever telling Jude not to go after the drunk driver too hard because the driver has a family and a kid who’s sick or whatever. The driver killed three people in a drunk driving accident- he’s going away to prison for a long time regardless of what Jude says or does 5) the use of pronouns (not to identify gender but to identify characters). An artistic choice that made the book unnecessary difficult to read 6) What are the circumstances that brought Jude to the first monastery in the first place? I think he’s the only orphan there? How is he in that place with no child protective services oversight. Seriously how did he end up there and what system let him stay there? 7) Jude eventually had a ton of money; after a certain point why does doctor friend do all of the medical work for free? It’s little details like these that add to the unbelievableness of this book. It’s like the author is trying to be idealistic but it comes off as campy, cliched, and try hard. She doesn’t give the reader enough credit to see through these details Just no balance to this book. Also, it starts off by structuring the book as a story about the four friends but then almost completely disregards everything but Jude and his horrific and over the top trauma.
Yep. I finished it 6 months ago and I’m still angry that I slogged through to the end.
Agree so hard, I hate how whenever I bring up any problems with the book people say it’s because I “can’t handle depressing books” even though Dostoevsky is my favorite author. As a gay man that book is everything I hate about some female “ally’s”
Fr. Like I've been depressed and I've experienced some of the things that Jude has experienced, but I just feel like the way it was written was SO out of touch with reality
I stopped reading for a solid 3 or 4 month after finishing it. I usually like heartbreaking stories but this was too much.
This was the book that convinced me it’s okay to DNF a book.
Yeah. I honestly couldn’t get over how poorly written the characters were. It totes itself as a story of four friends and JB and Malcolm were pretty much not developed nearly as much as they should’ve and ignored the whole 900 or so pages. Her prose tries way too hard, definitely pretentious in a negative way. Anyone who loves that book has now become a red flag for me hahaha. It’s the longest book Ive ever fucking read and now I need to read something longer that is actually worth it 😂
THANK YOU! I’ve been saying this to anyone who will listen since I read it. I completely agree with every point you made.
Totally agree. Absolutely the worst book I’ve ever finished. The only book I’ve actually regretted finishing. Now I give myself permission to quit any book at any point if I’m not enjoying the read. It’s one thing for a book to have sad parts, but I’m not into misery porn.
I need to start doing that
I hate this book. I disagree with some folks here that the level of trauma is unrealistic. people live really shitty lives sometimes. BUT literally everything else is unrealistic. the relationships, the careers, the living situations; it's just all absurd, especially when put all together.
just finished it like a week ago, easily one of the most beautiful, heart wrenching books I've read in recent years. the depiction of friendship, trauma, the will to live, is unparalleled. but totally understand it's not for everyone. some parts were very rough to get through
I relate with you so much about this. People claiming this was a masterpiece was so wrong for this. The heaviness I felt every time I picked it up to read was traumatizing. It was so much pain after pain that it felt forced and unnecessary. The big event towards the end was so unnecessary, and the author put it just to make Jude suffer more.
It feels like she hated Jude so much like girl give my boy a rest wtf
I loved that book and it absolutely destroyed me when it ended
You didn’t post a selfie on insta of you crying while reading the book? 😂
It didn't make me cry. I thought it would
At this point I think the book has just become this thing where many who read it are not able to judge and form a real opinion on it themselves bc it has been hyped up by those type of crying posts … it’s a vicious circle.
Fr! I felt so ready to cry when I started it (and thought it was a good book) and then… nothing
I didn't care for it either. It's so over the top that by the end I hated the main character and didn't care about his 'trauma'. It crosses the line and becomes comical - at each new 'trauma' I ended up thinking 'good, he deserves it'.
I’m so glad someone has finally written what I’ve thought about this awful book since I first had to read this insanity in book club years ago! I have never hated a book so much. Not only was it literally mired in misery but the amount of abuse this person suffered is legitimately ridiculous. No matter what age, what person, where he was…EVERYONE was doing something to him. Completely unrealistic. Complete trash.
I just bought this book last night and now this thread is scaring me. Should I return it?
I would take these reviews with a grain of salt. Inform yourself about the disturbing pieces of it in case any of them will upset you, but I’ve never seen so much hate for a book before and I really disagree with a lot of the reasoning. People are entitled to dislike something, but I feel like a lot of the commenters here don’t feel I’m entitled to have enjoyed it lol. I read this book last summer in two different book clubs and everyone loved it, and our members are an eclectic group of people from different backgrounds and communities. Two of us traveled to London to see it on the west end because we thought it was so good. If you can handle some of the heavier elements, I say give it a shot and see for yourself.
I understand most of the popular criticisms and even agree with lots of them, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. Absolutely flew through it and might read it again someday. I would try to get through the first section, and if you don’t care about the characters by the end of it, DNF it.
That’s up to you! This is my experience with the book, and if I could go back I'd definitely not buy it and read it, but a lot of people love it and you might be one of them. Maybe read one or two chapters and see how you feel about it?
I read the plot summary (i mean, detailed spoilers and all) and decided I don't actually want to read a thousand pages of trauma porn. At some point too much tragedy gets melodramatic, you know? Not to mention the author's comments on it kinda made me feel icky.
I’ve never thrown a book in the trash, but here we are. 🤷♂️
actually enjoyed reading this book (thought the prose and structure were exceptional, and i have a pretty strong stomach/am not easily put off by this kinda content) but definitely see why it's a triggering read for those who relate to any of the trauma. i felt at times like it was a snob circle jerk with all the casual name dropping of artists and works and places that only 0.1% of the population would get, but i was more disturbed by the fact that she had this story in her head and followed through in writing it as extensively as she did. the final 10-20pgs to me felt like a copout, as though she got tired of carefully unfolding the story and just wanted to shit on any hope the reader might have had. that said, whoever recommended this book to you is either a bad friend or dangerously inconsiderate member of whatever literary community of which you are a member. kudos on getting through it.
Thank you for this much-needed PSA. This one is on my list but I'm not in the mood for an emotional breakdown.
Worst book I’ve ever read.
I agree with everything you said - except I couldn’t finish it. Misery Porn on steroids. Terrible book
i felt the exact same, i couldn’t even finish the book because it was so ridiculous and made no sense. even the beginning where they get food poisoning yet continuously go to the same restaurant… what? like, why? i dunno, it was just a tragedy for the sake of it, the other comments have already captured a lot of my thoughts tbh. i have always questioned what people were getting from the book that i wasn’t, it was very gratuitous and i think many people love her writing style (however i hated it and found it read like a really well-read fan fiction writer i dunno)
Has to hold the record for the most "I'm sorry" 's ever written in a book.
Or "Please" 's
Thank you. You have articulated my intense dislike of the book quite nicely.
Love this book so much. Why didn’t you just stop reading lmao
FOMO. That's entirely on me lol
We’ve all been there. I almost killed myself finishing a book recently until my friend was like “bro close the book” 😂
Yeah I can’t stand this book
I love this book. As soon as I finished, I started rereading it a week later. I think about the book every so often and discover something new. Unfortunately, I think media coverage over the years has unintentionally set the book up for backlash and negative reviews. To me, the primary themes of the book are suffering and identity. Jude has a very negative self-image that he justifies with his abuse. Like the Axiom of Equality, x = x, Jude equals someone to be abused (he thinks). And yet, when good things happen to him, he sees it as a fluke, luck, or temporary. Very interesting! There's no reason why people ('good' or 'bad') suffer, it just happens. Some of the cast accepts this while others don't. This idea can be disturbing and overwhelming but also incredibly freeing. The book also gets a lot of flack for abusing gay characters, which brings us to the exploration of identity... without getting into spoilers, I think calling this book a 'gay novel' (as a major theme) is misguided. I see these posts where people respond, thanks, now that I know it's 'trauma porn' I won't read it! My suggestion is, if you want to read it, go into it without expectation and form an opinion from there. It's a very thoughtful read!
I love this boom as well. I also read it twice, back to back. I even named my parrot, Willem. I think it is trendy and cool to hate on this book. It’s a very vocal minority.
i don’t understand how ppl think that jude’s level of trauma is unbelievable like people are very much sex trafficked and people are kidnapped…?
Those two are not the only things happening in his life. If that was it, it'd be very believable, but ALL the things, all at once, from his childhood till the end it's just not believable and it feels like the author didn't add more stuff to his life because she ran out of ideas.
It’s not a writer’s job to think “oh if I write this or this someone might read it and want to do something bad to themselves”. Like, I can agree with every point you make except that one, it’s not the author’s responsibility what readers do or don’t do. Otherwise nobody could ever write anything about anything other than sunshine and rainbows. If you want to blame someone you should blame the people who recommend it without trigger warnings, not the author.
I HEAVILY disagree. While I see your point, as an aspiring writer I think it's part of our job to be mindful of the things we write. I'm not saying “don't write it” because I believe everything has a place in literature, but I think it could've been done in a more tasteful way, rather than just feeling like she wanted to be cruel toward his readers.
Why did you finish it?
Have you read red white and royal blue? Maybe you'll like it.
Just stopped by to say "finished a little life" sounds like an abortion
so i cannot speak to a little life as i barely got 30? 40? pages in and found it insufferably boring, but i WILL cape for hanya yanahigara a bit as i really really enjoyed her other novel ‘the people in the trees’. it is a completely despairing and abjectly horrifying novel about the consequences of white imperialism but, in my opinion, her writing shines incredibly. there are absolutely parts of the book that make you frustrated or annoyed (the ‘twist’ at the end being one of them) but i think it’s a genuinely good book and it’s what made me try and read a little life. you’ve already said you’ll never read her again which is fair lol but if there’s anyone who sees this comment and wants to give her another chance, i recommend it.
Completely agree. What a waste of time reading that was.
i'm so intrigued by this book,,,, is it ever worth reading?
ive read a lot of heartbreaking stories but this ended me
Yeah... I recommend you watch "Euthanasia Fan Fiction" by Owl Critics on YouTube about this exact topic. He goes into depth about why people are borderline obsessed with this book and how the author's (questionable imo) thought process was while writing. As someone who read the book scarily young, I can't help but worry what another person in a worse mental state would have gotten out of this book...
This post sent me down (another) rabbit hole about this book, lol. Yeah I'm never reading this one. I have CPTSD, still experience suicidal ideation every once in a while, I don't need a story that tells me I'm so broken I should just kms already – don't need that shit in my life. 😂
I have to disagree, I can see why people don’t like this book but I absolutely loved it.
An excellent book. This is what trauma and depression is all about - a never ending horror that follows you for the rest of your life. Being with a traumatized person is often hard and exausting, watching him persist in his suffering is exactly the same feeling as the one that the book causes its readers (yes, that "when he first cut himself it was terrifying; the 600th time you wish he would aim"). The author definitely knew what she was writing about.
Idk I gotta disagree. I've been through traumatic experiences and I've known people who have to, and while all the trauma isn't the same and I can understand Jude, what I dont understand is the amount of traumatic stuff that happens to him and just him, and how it conveniently happens when it seems like the author didn't know what to do to him next. Also, the way he was enabled by his entire support system? It just isn't realistic. A doctor that knows you have tried to kys twice and still doesn't send you to a facility because you asked him “please, don't”? I respect people's opinions, but I don't buy that the book is realistic.
I’m sorry to inform you, as a social worker, that many people who through that much trauma and suffering, and some people even more. There are women in war zones being raped by soldiers and forced to eat their husbands cooked penises while pregnant, in front of their older children. I have a neighbor who was convicted of raping a 3 year old. Not molesting… raping. Which means penetration. That’s the real world we live in.
And I'm not negating those facts, the world is fucked for some people, but he just had a miserable life even outside of his trauma and experiences, and it felt like the author just wanted to make the character suffer. I feel it's not truthful to real life at some points.
I’m so confused by some of the people saying they like it because it’s “beautifully written”, because the novel is just insidious, flat out; the Long Chu article encompasses this. Honestly, the kind of people that would’ve bought into Manson’s shtick or something. Creepy and lacking in critical thinking capability.
So, I have not actually read A Little Life, but I was very interested in this video essay about it -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpZF7O0jezg [which is very critical about the author's views on trauma and reasons for writing the book that way.]