/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10234680]

Well, a book just made me cry for the first time. Just finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I've never felt so helpless by a book before, especially with the foreshadowing in the beginning. I do think it was a little bit too long, it could easily have been cut down a bit. And I felt like the prose would constantly change style suddenly. I wanted to scream at Jude constantly to just talk to someone.

Has anyone else here read it? Any books that are similar?

[Anonymous No.10234686]

Can you summarize what happens to Jude please?

[Anonymous No.10234699]

>>10234686
Sure, massive spoilers ahead obviously

From a early age Jude lives in a foster home after his parents die. This is more like a church than a foster home where he's beaten and raped by the "Brothers". Eventually, he runs away with one of the Brothers who treats him nicely and promises him that they would live in a log cabin far away and be happy forever. The Brother however ends up prostituting Jude out to men in motel room from ages around 10 to 14 or so. He's eventually busted and spends his time bouncing around a little, sleeping with truck drivers to get from place to place. He's picked up by a Doctor who treats him for an STD he's contracted but ends up locking him in a basement and raping him repeatedly and then, after trying to run away, is mowed down by the guy in his car. He eventually meets the first person that is truly nice to him, Ana, in a hospital and she helps him to open up a little bit. He ends up becoming an extremely successful lawyer after going to law school but has deep mental issues from his trauma as a kid and cuts himself repeatedly and also can't walk very well because of the car incident. He ends up meeting a guy who he sees romantically. This guy beats him, rapes him and leaves him for dead. He recovers, but is far more mentally fucked up than before. He tries to kill himself, but fails. Eventually he and his best friend become a couple, and it's the first time he's truly happy. Until his partner is involved in a car crash, kill him and another one of his friends. From there he spirals out of control, doesn't eat, starts to give up on life. He manages a few more years before injecting oxygen into his blood, inducing a seizure that kills him.

[Anonymous No.10234717]

the only part that made me emotional was when willem got an award and made a really touching acceptance speech
book is not that great though. someone pointed out that it substitutes character development for misery which i agree with.
also found it annoying that the entire gang ends up extremely succesful in their respective fields.

[Anonymous No.10234719]

>>10234680

I've read half of it and what I've read so far is just awful. A Little Life is torture porn with shit prose made for middle aged women. It's like an amped up reality drama; no story, no insights, no beautiful prose, nothing exciting happening ever, it's all just 800 pages of muh feels. Also, every man in the book act like they're actually a woman.

[Anonymous No.10234747]

>>10234717
>>10234717
forgot to give some props for portraying self harming behavior really well
i think a lot of people don't understand that it's basically like a drug addiction