Fiction by Hanya Yangihara
I have heard a lot of opinions about this book; either people love it or hate it. It's award winning, and definitely an Intellectual Smart People Book, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel. Having read it, I say that I'm squarely on the love-it side; I think this story is a real masterpiece. Really, it's amazing! It's very sad, but that is only because the characters are so real.
This story follows a foursome of men who were college roommates (I think at MIT, but this was unclear) and are now in New York City navigating early adulthood; it goes on into their later lives. Interestingly, it is not set in any particular time, which I read is called "the eternal present-day setting." (See how I learn intellectual terms? I am pretending to be a Smart Person.) The narrative begins by telling you about each man (Willem, JB, Malcom, and Jude), and then it shifts to sharply focus on Jude alone. Jude's is the eponymous "Little Life" that the story is really about.
This is an odd thing to say about an 800-plus page book, but in some ways I wish it were longer. After the initial part, we never get any more of JB or Malcom's perspective, and I'd like to have had that. But that's a minor criticism. All in all this is a wonderful book, beautifully written and incredibly moving.
I was very surprised to learn that the author is a woman. I could not tell from the name, and based on the way it sounded, I just assumed it was written by a gay man. There are almost no female characters in the story, and the ones that appear are extremely peripheral, like someone's mom who shows up with a sandwich once and then disappears. But the male characters feel very real and extremely deep.
As an aside, I don't care for the cover, but I understand the artistic choice behind it. It fits the story. I just dislike things that aren't pretty, because I'm shallow...
