And then everyone after that (with one notable exception) loves and cares for and protects Jude. Everyone Jude meets from birth to about age sixteen is terrible and abusive. It wasn’t even the sheer amount of horror that occurs to Jude in his life that felt unrealistic, it was that it is never balanced by a single moment of kindness.
There’s no one event in Jude’s life that is unbelievable – unfortunately, the world is full of terrible people and events and things like this do happen to children. This is clear from early on and as the story progresses, more is steadily revealed until we learn the final, terrible event that left Jude physically disabled. At one point, it’s mentioned that they don’t even know Jude’s ethnicity, which I found slightly hard to believe and an unnecessary mystery. He doesn’t talk about his home or family and others soon learn not to ask. Jude arrives at university two years younger than his new roommates (who quickly become his first friends) and with his past shrouded with secrecy. And while this is what kept me interested while I read, it’s also what makes me look back on the novel with a little less affection. It is Jude’s mysterious background and childhood that compel the reader to keep reading, as it is slowly revealed, and it is Jude’s development (or lack thereof) that we’re following. At some point, JB and Malcolm drop to secondary characters and while the book checks in on them occasionally, we don’t get much detail of their lives and we stop seeing anything from their perspective.Įven more so, the book is about Jude.
That isn’t false but it’s really more the story of Jude and Willem. The novel’s description will tell you that it’s about four friends: Willem, Jude, JB, and Malcolm, and that it follows them from their early twenties, shortly after they’ve been roommates in university, and through the next forty or so years of life.
The characters are interesting and diverse and the book moves forward quickly and with a rate of revelation that makes you want to keep reading.
I heard several rave reviews of it before I started (including the cashier at Powells when I picked up a used copy in Portland) and so was happy to tackle the huge hardcover. Turns out, the longer I wait, the less I feel as though I really liked this novel. I’ve been sitting on this review for a while, pondering how I feel about A Little Life. A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday, 2015)
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