A Little Life

trade paperback, 816 pages

English language

Published Jan. 25, 2016 by Anchor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-8041-7270-7
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OCLC Number:
944074472

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4 stars (5 reviews)

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.

--back cover

28 editions

Beautiful portrayal of male friendships

4 stars

After several months listening to the 32 hours of this audiobook, with a story that spanned several decades, I feel I've been on a massive journey with all these characters, which was as beautiful as it was bleak. I've not read many books that explore male friendships in a way that go me thinking about my own, and often reminded me of the film Stand By Me.

I didn't know much about this book when I started listening to it, which perhaps was for the best as I didn't know how bleak it would become at times, and later a friend would tell me it has received much criticism for this. However, I feel very grateful for all the very tender and warm moments in the book, which were perhaps enhanced by the incredible narration from Oliver Wyman.

Review of 'A Little Life' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

so unbelievably bleak was this novel. it was a good thing I did it as a book-on-CD because I don't think I could have pushed thru all the terrible things, slowly revealed, that happened to the main character Jude. he is abandoned as a infant, taken in by monks who in turns physically or sexually abuse him. the one shining light that seems to care for him plans their escape but he turns out to be a manipulative, pimping pedophile. and when this despicable man is caught, Jude is confined to a foster home where more sexual abuse awaits him so he runs away - into the arms of a sexually depraved lunatic doctor who locks him in his basement, treats his various STDs, and ultimately runs him with down with a car after he's had his fill of him. how many terrible things can befall one person? ('more' is …