Goodreads is a free public website used to track one’s book count, interact with other readers, and rate and discuss literature. After finishing a book, one has the option to rate it out of five stars, which then affects the overall average rating given to a book based on the general public opinion. Furthermore, one may also write comments. There are no regulations to what someone may comment or when, meaning that someone who has not read a book can still comment as if they had and rate the book. Therefore, the opinions circulating on Goodreads are by no means professional, and should likely not be taken too seriously. However, the website still provides a relatively good way to gauge the general public opinion on a specific book. I often like browsing through some reviews, both negative and positive, on books I finish, primarily for entertainment. Recently, I’ve noticed that my last read has quite the discourse surrounding it. While this book still sits at a generally high rating of 4.3./5, I found some interesting comments I believe would be interesting to address, as the arguments made seem to have many supporters.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, an award-winning bestseller published in 2015, praised for its refreshing take on race, gender and sexuality, follows a friend group from their 20s to their deaths, though primarily focuses on Jude St. Francis, one of the four members. Throughout the span of approximately 800 pages, readers witness complex, nuanced, and tragic emotional relationships as the characters traverse through, what the book depicts as, the hardships of life in a realistic yet melodramatic universe. They move through jobs, relationships and more, during which, Jude reveals more of his past as a young child to mid-teens to the readers, and ultimately, his best friend, Willem. Before reading the book, I was unaware of how heavy the topics would be. (Slight spoiler alert) It is revealed that Jude experienced nearly unimaginably harsh systemic abuse within a monastery for the entirety of his childhood, then was later forced into sex trafficking as a young teen, then kidnapped, and given a life threatening injury when trying to run away that continuously provides a reason for Jude to feel like an “other” for the remainder of the book. Somehow, this isn't even half of the stuff this kid goes through. (END SPOILER) Since the book begins with the four friends having recently finished college (A few years after Jude had escaped his previously horrific life), the book contains huge psychological elements, as Jude’s mental health becomes a direct result of his trauma and greatly affects his general life experience as he develops a severe affinity for self harm. Due to these elements, many readers have and continue to call A Little Life a poor (and even problematic) example of literature, stating that it is simply well-written “torture porn,” especially considering Jude is an otherwise “perfect” being whenever not being affected by his horrific past. Though, this statement also exists because the author herself has not experienced, nor researched, any of the featured topics and admitted to having opinions many consider wrong or even uneducated. For example, in an interview regarding A Little Life, she states: “I don’t believe in it—talk therapy, I should specify—myself. One of the things that makes me most suspicious about the field is its insistence that life is always the answer. Every other medical specialty devoted to the care of the seriously ill recognizes that at some point, the doctor’s job is to help the patient die; that there are points at which death is preferable to life,” therefore admitting she believes there can be a point where an individual is beyond help, an idea which many consider incredibly dangerous and harmful. I will also mention that many have acknowledged other controversies within this book (such as the representation of LGBTQ+ characters in modern fiction, the depiction of race, depiction of time, “black and white characters,” and more), however for the sake of maintaining a relatively short blog post, I shall primarily address my thoughts on the supposed overuse of trauma and heavy topics and the author’s underdeveloped research on mental health / thoughts on mental health (+the role it played in the plot).
Myself and many other readers express general like for (roughly) the first 200 pages of the book as the “balance” in plot remains much more equal than later on. Overall, the focus remains on what the book was originally said to be about. For reference, here is the official description (as written on the back of the book):
“A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.”
However, for the following 600 pages (with the exception of roughly 50 pages towards the end), there is practically nothing but description after description of self harm, pain, self torture, an unwillingness to receive help, and a dwindling amount of interaction between the relationships we are supposedly meant to follow. Therefore, I find it no surprise that readers express so much disdain, as (IMO) these scenes are just truly harrowing to read and aren’t even what the book was meant to address. Rather than creating a book that allows a unique perspective into topics more rarely discussed openly, such as (but not limited to,) mental health, Yanagihiara has instead created an awfully repetitive novel that focuses purely on the negative situations in one’s life. Based on the book itself and other interviews with this author, I believe her intention was to write a story that expresses one of many possible but unjust realities faced by an individual with a tragic ending to depict the true unfairness of the situation (despite the supposed “masterful depiction of love” statement on the back cover). While some of this goal was achieved, her choosing to pick apart fifty one years of one’s supposed life and include only elements further progressing her intended narrative ultimately made many readers find the book unrealistic, especially when it grew to be quite repetitive. For example, after 750 pages of reading about the absolute pure torture of Jude St. Francis, he had finally reached a content life for approximately two years, when his partner was killed, which yet again pushed the book towards the same depressive cycle. The constant plot twists existing only to further this very specific plot has made many readers ultimately wonder why the book was written in the first place. How could one possibly benefit from reading about these relentless tragedies? From the way I see it, I believe the characters make for interesting subjects to analyze, however I too think the overall length of the book could have been far shorter to (1.) better capture the intended themes, and (2.) create that intended narrative in a more impactful manner.
As for the author’s stance on mental health, I certainly find it problematic, as do many others. There have been interviews where she has admitted to doing no research on the topic and not having consulted with any mental health professionals or even those having dealt with similar issues as Jude. Therefore, having written a book surrounding the effects of poor mental health can most certainly be considered strange, considering she knows nothing about what she spent nearly 800 pages describing. However, it should be noted that she otherwise clearly made a strong attempt to make other aspects within the book as realistic as possible, as seen when considering the immense research she has done for everything else within A Little Life (eg: the places visited by the characters, law firms/legal procedures, architecture, etc.), further adding to my confusion about why she did not do the otherwise necessary research to write such a book. Overall, by lacking information on how a character with psychological trauma may truly think and behave, it further adds more misleading information regarding mental health in a world already full of similar misconceptions. (Lowkey even worse considering the audience for this book is quite young… but I won’t get into that lest this post gets any longer as I’d ultimately start typing about the role of fanfiction within modern literature which is a whole nother thing!).
ANYWAYYYY
I will also say that, despite these controversies, A Little Life may still be one of best written books I’ve read, and I say this because throughout the entirety of the book I remained constantly in awe of Yanagihara’s writing style and character expression. While I may entirely disagree with her opinions regarding mental health and find kinda a lotttttt of issues with her book… she still had great character development and, at least in my opinion, insanely well-written scenes that incorporated wonderful detail.
SOO YEA I THINK THAT'S MAINLY IT FOR THIS BLOG POST GUYS- TAKE FROM IT WHAT YOU WILL.
Thanks for reading!
- Karina
