2015 Booker Prize longlist: A Little Life
SnakBooker Prize
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3Deern
This is quite a long book at almost 750 pages, but since I read the first page of the sample on Thursday afternoon I hardly could take breaks. I am at 58% now and will no doubt finish it within the next 24 hours. If I had to rate at this moment it would get 4.5 stars.
I don't know yet if it is a good book for me to read right now. It might turn out therapeutic as last year's The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt (which has remained my most memorable 2014 Booker candidate), but it might also bring out destructive tendencies as did Doris Lesssing's The Golden Notebook two years ago. Books can do that and if you're very sensitive and going through a low time, it might be better not to select this one as your next read.
I don't know yet if it is a good book for me to read right now. It might turn out therapeutic as last year's The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt (which has remained my most memorable 2014 Booker candidate), but it might also bring out destructive tendencies as did Doris Lesssing's The Golden Notebook two years ago. Books can do that and if you're very sensitive and going through a low time, it might be better not to select this one as your next read.
4Simone2
Oh man, what a book. I have had to cry at least five times, but probably more. I didn't count because I could not read on and on although I wanted to.
Such a heavy book, such a tragedy.
I loved both Jude and Willem, the two friends this book is about. I loved their friendship, their conversations and the way they cared for each other.
Jude's past. I can't say much about it here. The way he dealt with it is written in detail by Yanagihara and although I fortunately don't recognize any of it, I now feel like I do. So beautifully written, it broke my heart.
When I started I thought this would be a 5 star read. It went however a bit over the hill, I think.
And I also have some negative comments.
About Jude's past: I got the point after Brother Luke. How many bad luck can one encounter?
About the friendship between all main characters: why are they continuously apologizing themselves?
About their way of live: is everyone in NY wealthy, creative and gay? The characters are sometimes a bit one-dimensional I think. Jude and Willem are being introduced as two of four friends, however the characters of the other two, JB and Malcolm (and especially the last one) are hardly worked out at all. The book would have survived without them - probably a bit shorter as well, because 700 pages to tell the story is a lot.
But now I feel guilty about being so critical because I haven't read a book all year which touched me like this one did. It won't win the Booker Prize I guess, but for me it is a 4,5 stars read.
Such a heavy book, such a tragedy.
I loved both Jude and Willem, the two friends this book is about. I loved their friendship, their conversations and the way they cared for each other.
Jude's past. I can't say much about it here. The way he dealt with it is written in detail by Yanagihara and although I fortunately don't recognize any of it, I now feel like I do. So beautifully written, it broke my heart.
When I started I thought this would be a 5 star read. It went however a bit over the hill, I think.
And I also have some negative comments.
About Jude's past: I got the point after Brother Luke. How many bad luck can one encounter?
About the friendship between all main characters: why are they continuously apologizing themselves?
About their way of live: is everyone in NY wealthy, creative and gay? The characters are sometimes a bit one-dimensional I think. Jude and Willem are being introduced as two of four friends, however the characters of the other two, JB and Malcolm (and especially the last one) are hardly worked out at all. The book would have survived without them - probably a bit shorter as well, because 700 pages to tell the story is a lot.
But now I feel guilty about being so critical because I haven't read a book all year which touched me like this one did. It won't win the Booker Prize I guess, but for me it is a 4,5 stars read.
5Deern
I finished it as well and posted my review on my Booker thread.
>4 Simone2: I (and many others) criticize the same points which in my case brought the book down from possible 5 to 4 stars. It was too much of everything and the argument that it was meant to be a kind of dark fairy tale didn't remove those issues for me. On the other hand it greatly showed how co-dependency works.
It's still a great important book and I recommend it for those who think they can deal with it. I also cried a lot during my read.
Btw I read somewhere that it was edited down from originally 900 pages with even more Jude suffering.
>4 Simone2: I (and many others) criticize the same points which in my case brought the book down from possible 5 to 4 stars. It was too much of everything and the argument that it was meant to be a kind of dark fairy tale didn't remove those issues for me. On the other hand it greatly showed how co-dependency works.
It's still a great important book and I recommend it for those who think they can deal with it. I also cried a lot during my read.
Btw I read somewhere that it was edited down from originally 900 pages with even more Jude suffering.
6RidgewayGirl
I have mixed feelings about A Little Life. I thought that it was both brilliant and deeply flawed. Yanagihara had me utterly involved in the story, and she created an emotional atmosphere where I was really rooting for Jude. Her depictions of the abuse were well-handled - enough for me to viscerally react to them, but not graphic. And there was an event that had me incredulous, until I realized that had it happened to a woman, I would have believed it - I appreciated having my unconscious assumptions challenged.
But...the story involves four friends - one artist, one architect, one lawyer and one actor. Is it really at all likely that each of them will end up at the top of their professions and fabulously wealthy? Along with all of their many friends, many of whom have also chosen creative fields? In this and in other ways, the book eventually becomes a wish-fulfillment fantasy, that took a lot of the tension and interest from the focus of the book. How many fancy dinner parties and exotic vacations with groups of devoted friends are too many?
And that's my second problem with A Little Life - there's simply too much of it. Half the book to set the stage, in which no change happens. 350 pages is too much of that. And then the repetitive descriptions of everyone getting along - I get that Jude had a lovely group of devoted friends. But I can't see who the hundreds of pages of descriptions are for - the people who love both Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Booker nominees is probably fairly small. Ok, Yanagihara fell in love with her characters (I did, too), but where was the editing process? That's a sizable book to spend with a character who never really develops. I love big books, and ones that take their time to tell their story, but this was excessive.
But...the story involves four friends - one artist, one architect, one lawyer and one actor. Is it really at all likely that each of them will end up at the top of their professions and fabulously wealthy? Along with all of their many friends, many of whom have also chosen creative fields? In this and in other ways, the book eventually becomes a wish-fulfillment fantasy, that took a lot of the tension and interest from the focus of the book. How many fancy dinner parties and exotic vacations with groups of devoted friends are too many?
And that's my second problem with A Little Life - there's simply too much of it. Half the book to set the stage, in which no change happens. 350 pages is too much of that. And then the repetitive descriptions of everyone getting along - I get that Jude had a lovely group of devoted friends. But I can't see who the hundreds of pages of descriptions are for - the people who love both Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Booker nominees is probably fairly small. Ok, Yanagihara fell in love with her characters (I did, too), but where was the editing process? That's a sizable book to spend with a character who never really develops. I love big books, and ones that take their time to tell their story, but this was excessive.
7sparemethecensor
>6 RidgewayGirl:
I just finished A Little Life and I completely agree with you. It was an epic saga with all the wonder that entails, but it was also much too much.
I just finished A Little Life and I completely agree with you. It was an epic saga with all the wonder that entails, but it was also much too much.
