The trajectory of Jude’s past is this: abandoned as an infant, he is raised by abusive monks until one of the monks, Brother Luke, a pedophile who has been grooming Jude so that he can kidnap him and exploit him by forcing him into sex work, does so. The other characters, Willem, JB, Malcolm, and Harold, Jude’s mentor and later adoptive father, have all certainly suffered in their pasts, but none of them have experienced trauma to the degree that Jude has, and as such, Jude is extremely resistant to opening up about his struggles. While the backgrounds of other characters come freely and unbidden shortly after they are introduced, Jude’s story is not revealed until deep into the novel. The one omitted, Jude, sticks out immediately as the mysterious member of the group, but given his exceptionally handsome face and remarkable intelligence, he is absolutely captivating. The first fifty pages or so lead you through three of the characters’ origin stories, pointedly leaving out just one of them. When you begin to read it, you think you’re in for a typical “friends trying to make it in the big city” story, the kind you’re familiar with from other ensemble NYC novels and critically-acclaimed indie movies. The MelodramaĪ Little Life starts off as one book, and ends as another. If you need to avoid any of these themes, you should also stop here and I would also suggest that you avoid the novel in its entirety. Furthermore, A Little Life takes a head-on approach to a very wide variety of troubling subject matter, including child sexual abuse, self-harm, mental illness and suicide, medical and surgical imagery, and domestic violence.

This may go without saying, but there will be some no-holds-barred spoilers ahead, so if you’d like to avoid those, stop here.

There are several criticisms that often come up when the book is challenged, but the two most prominent complaints are as follows:Īs someone who cannot make up their mind about the novel, I’d like to get into exactly why these criticisms are being made, and see what these issues mean for the quality of the book. Although shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award, the quality of the book has been relentlessly questioned since its release. Hanya Yanagihara’s 2015 novel, A Little Life, is controversial.

Cover of a little life