I agree. A Little Life is extraordinary, and more people should read it. I've never felt more connected to a group of characters, or read characters that felt so fully-formed before. Yanagihara able to elicit a remarkable sense of emotional connection with the characters.
For anyone unfamiliar with the premise, the New Yorker's Briefly Noted review is as fine an introduction as any:
A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday). This exquisite, unsettling novel follows four male friends from their meeting as students at a prestigious Northeastern college through young adulthood and into middle age. Yanagihara deftly outlines the trials of JB, a brilliant but tactless painter; Malcolm, an architect with moneyed parents; and Willem, a would-be ranch hand turned award-winning actor. But her talent is most apparent in the depiction of Jude, a prominent corporate litigator haunted by a brutally abusive childhood and struggling with the terrifying largeness, the impossibility, of the world. The book shifts from a generational portrait to something darker and more tender: an examination of the depths of human cruelty, counterbalanced by the restorative powers of friendship.
It's a difficult read, in an emotional sense, but if you can handle it, I think it's worth it. If you're still unsure, I suggest listening to Books on the Nightstand, Episode 322 "
In which I manage not to cry". For the first time in almost seven years, they dedicated an entire episode to one book, and I think Ann does a great job selling it.
But Necrovex, I don't know what you are talking about. I didn't think I'd linked any articles here, since I've been talking a lot with mu cephei and to a lesser extent Dandy Crocodile through PMs. I just did a search, and the closest thing I came across was talking about - but not linking to - the New Yorker's review "The Subversive Brilliance of A Little Life."
I just finished the 19th arc and am taking a break to read other stuff for a little while.
