I've seen a lot of criticism of A Little Life online, and, to be honest, what made me read the book was actually a 1 star review on Goodreads that said if a 0 star review was possible, that's what A Little Life would have deserved. A few things I would actually concede are problematic is the lack of meaningful female characters, and the 'I'm not into men, I'm just into Jude' mindset that Willem has. The book is admittedly very male-centric (disappointing from a female author of this calibre), and the Willem mindset echoes a lot of yaoi/manga mindsets, rather than being an authentic depiction of gay love.
However, I did find this book to be truly hooking and a wonderful study in humanity and suffering. Some of the most widespread criticism pertains to the book being 'trauma porn.' Readers believe that it is highly unrealistic to have such rotten luck, to be subjected to such inhumane treatment, again and again and again. While this being unrealistic may be true, I think it's very dangerous to think this way. It's amazing that readers have lived such a sheltered, privileged life that they cannot conceive of such traumatic experiences condensed into one lifetime, but nevertheless, it's not impossible. It may unrealistic, but not entirely implausible. In fact, there may have been people who have faced such treatment in real life. Calling such experiences 'trauma porn' is erasure, it's belittling and insensitive.
Another thing I personally really enjoyed is the paragraphs discussing law and mathematics, and the chapters detailing Harold's experience with Jacob. I think the passages on adulthood and friendship, on parenthood and addiction, were actually very honest in their depiction. Furthermore, I truly love Yanagihara's prose. I really appreciate the way she writes, making everything simultaneously mundane and poetic. It's no doubt she's a spectacular writer.
Some of the passages might seem extreme (as one user wrote, "do we really need to see another instance of Jude cutting himself?"), but an honest depiction of Jude's life needs this scenes. We need to see them to fully understand the depth of his capacity to hurt himself, to understand how deeply he is scarred.
Another thing a lot of people talk about, is about how other characters, Willem and Andy and Harold, tried to get him to live, for the entirety of the novel. After all this, he still chose to commit suicide, so what was the point? I think, actually, that that WAS the entire point. Sometimes love, no matter how pure or freely given, is not enough. It tells us that sometimes our past governs who we are, sometimes it doesn't let us become someone else. This is not to say that all is lost, that everyone is hopeless, bound by shackles of their childhood. It is merely opposing the fairytale narrative that when we find people we love, everything magically gets better. No. It does not. I think that's very important, and perhaps a very realistic aspect of the book.
The most touching parts of the story are not when we see Jude being abused, it's when he is grateful, for how his life has reversed. It's when he realises that for every person who failed him in some way, there is another who never will. And that's beautiful. A Little Life explores the question — how much can someone withstand? How much before they must kill themselves? And although people say that suicide is never the answer, sometimes it is the only solution (NOT ENCOURAGING SUICIDE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM). And despite everything, A Little Life teaches us that although death may be ultimately inevitable, we can value our lives and create things, do things, that leave an impact. An important message.
by PreviousTonight8726
3 Comments
Your experience of the book is valid. If you liked it, then that’s great for you.
For me, this book is one instance where I can’t separate the author from the material. The author has stated that she doesn’t believe in therapy and that suicidal people should just go ahead and do it. I find her views abhorrent and it greatly colors my reading of the book, especially the choices she makes with Jude. There’s so much data that shows that therapy works, and I think espousing this belief – and using it to write was is essentially trauma porn – is dangerous.
For me it’s less about it being trauma porn and more about the author admitting she did little to no research about the actual mechanisms of lived experiences of trauma and mental illness. I’m biased because I work as a trauma therapist. I am immersed in this world and the story is wildly unrealistic in terms of its portrayal of topics that are incredibly nuanced and incredibly important. If you’re going to write an entire book on how a human experiences horrific trauma, I would expect the author to try a little harder to properly represent these realities, at the very least to be more respectful to real victims who want to see their stories told in a way that honours them and not diminishes them into tropes and stereotypes.
I am glad you took a hopeful message from it, but the book doesn’t exactly support that there is a “value to life”. It life itself was valuable, despite the hardship, and if those people who would never betray Jude was really countervalued, then he wouldn’t have committed suicide. The whole book was written for the author to validate suicide. And that means no amount of support, love, or joy matters more than the suffering. That’s what really upsets people, and it’s not wanting a “fairytale” ending to have ethical reservations about it since it’s a awful message for people with suicidal ideation.