A novel that draws the meandering line between the spheres of pleasure and pain.

I find the above picture, taken by Peter Hujar in the 1960’s, so fitting to this novel. And certainly the author Hanya Yanagihara did as well, as this very picture comprises the novel’s front cover. Though the photograph’s title is ‘Orgasmic Man’, the crossover into the realm of pain is very clear, and that was the key factor that drew Yanagihara in (I either read or heard this in one of the many interviews with her I ripped through after reading this book back in 2017).

In my own observations, I have noticed the addiction some face in their obstacles; falling short of the clear path to the other side of their troubles through an inherent unwillingness to cross that bridge. In my own case, as a younger man, I can say that this presented itself in a persistence with men who showed an either unapparent or lacking reciprocity; a gut-wrenching feeling also intertwined with a certain kind of pleasure from which I learned to abstain. In the case of this book’s protagonist Jude though, this same cycle comprises a much more vicious extremity and form.

The book starts out with the scope of four college-friends getting through the big city life of New York, but quickly narrows down on the ongoing ordeal of dealing with trauma lived out by Jude. A Little Life “in a not so little book” as one friend to whom I gifted the novel pointed out, will have you churning through it quicker than something a third of its size, somewhat guiltily aware that you are doing so out of curiosity as to what Jude’s traumas exactly are. And arriving at the end of the novel, you will have spanned four decades in these character’s lives, giving it perhaps extra appeal for the mature-age readers of this entry.

Without revealing spoilers, it can be said that Jude’s upbringing comprises very heavy subject matter, and how he deals (or doesn’t deal) with that corresponds to the writer’s decision to face these topics head on. It’s a constant back and forth between the direction of his steps; an endless climb out of the darkness he appears to be used to and even find suitable to his sense of self-worth. In an interview with Tim Adams of The Guardian accessible by clicking here, Yanagihara articulates:

“I am not that interested in abuse really. But what I am interested in as a writer is the long-term effect it has, particularly in men. I think women grow up almost prepared for it in a way. Boys still don’t and it happens to a great many of them. It takes away their sense of masculinity. And of course they are not equipped or encouraged to talk about it. It causes terrible psychic harm. I look at my friends who have experienced this, and these are people who are therapised and can discuss anything but they cannot go near this.”

I consider this novel to be the LGBT+ novel of our times, for, among the four main characters, two are on very different spots on the axis of bisexuality, one is a homosexual, and Jude really comprises the + element at the end of the string-of-letters-acronym, due to an illness that is not explicitly revealed albeit contextually implied, as well as having become asexual. The struggles in the dealings with the positive and negative charges in reality with all its magnetic grace and wrath make for an extremely compelling read, and thus I highly recommend this book.

For further insight into A Little Life, a fascinating exposé on the images that proved influential and even intrinsic to Yanagihara’s writing of the novel, according to her, can be found here. It also speaks to the question of how globally accessible this American/ New York novel is, which has since been adapted into a Dutch theatrical production, a still image of which lies directly below, and of which the rights for an on-screen series have been bought in America.

From a reader’s point of view, I found elements of Arcade Fire’s album Everything Now to be very much thematically linked to the novel, an example of which can be found by clicking here, as well as parts of Antony and the Johnsons’ I Am A Bird Now. The former of the two which, as it was released around my reading of A Little Life, comprises an inextricable part in my experience of it.

If you have read the novel and would like to relate any reflections in the comments below, anonymously or not, feel free to do so.