Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life is a powerful and heartbreaking story that dives into the deep complexities of friendship and trauma. The book focuses on four college friends living in New York City. They differ in race and personalities, but form an unmistakable bond based on their shared hardships in life.
The story begins when the four main characters first meet balding, wealthy, and proud Jude at college. He quickly form a powerful friendship with Willem and JB, two aspiring models and Malcolm, a talented young artist. The four boys quickly become inseparable, relying on one another for emotional and financial support.
As their group of friends grows, heavy emotional burdens and stories of personal suffering start to slowly unravel. Jude, the emotional and moral centre of the group, has been running from a traumatic past since he was a small child. His experiences, slowly revealed as the story progresses, make the narrative more dark and unsettling.
As the novel shifts from the fourth friends’ college years to their lives in their 30s, the focus of the story transitions from a group of friends dealing with personal issues and influences to Jude’s personal struggles and traumas. Yanagihara goes further into Jude’s childhood and traumatic past, providing feel wrenching imagery and backstories of the horrors of illegal and legalized child abuse. While Jude willingly carries his emotional scars as an adult, his friends go on a search to uncover the truth of Jude’s childhood.
The central theme of friendship in A Little Life is immensely compelling. Though the story focuses on Jude’s struggles with trauma, Yanagihara doesn’t forget the other characters and sheds light on their own personal issues. Malcolm’s struggle with his race, Willem’s difficulty with his family, and even JB’s failures to make it in the modeling industry are all addressed. This provides a more cathartic narrative as each of them comes together to fight for Jude’s healing and redemption.
The novel serves as a powerful example of how friendship can provide a lifeline in one’s darkest moments. Despite the stories’ dark themes, Yanagihara manages to portray a group of genuine and heart-warming friendships. Moreover, the story carries a message of hope as the character’s lives unfold in the midst of unspeakable pain and suffering.
A Little Life skillfully captures the pain of trauma and its healing power through the experiences of its characters. Yanagihara’s characters are painfully honest and complex while remaining somehow optimistic in their struggles. Yanagihara’s beautiful story of friendship and darkness will tear at the reader’s heartstrings and touch their soul.
