A Little Life - BookWyrm

724 pages

Langue : English

Publié 27 décembre 2015

ISBN :: 978-0-385-53925-8

(1 critique)

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

In rich and resplendent prose, Hanya Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and …

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

In rich and resplendent prose, Hanya Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance. --front flap

22 editions

Mat reviewed A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Beautiful portrayal of male friendships

4 étoiles

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.