A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Wasn’t friendship its own miracle?

The finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

I have been through life often where I’ve had the most meaningful friendships and then again I have lost the connections overtime. I often believe that people don’t see me as a potential friend anymore. More so because I am the withdrawn one. I find a disconnect with people.

The Reel

When I saw a reel of a girl crying on the train reading A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, I was curious to know what brought such strong emotions that made her cry.

So I picked up A Little Life. I already knew at the start it would be a book I would have to be strong throughout. Jude the central character being as tormented as he was because of a chilling and gruesome past made me still love the character. I loved how the author brought out all his good and bad traits so tenderly.

Beautiful Friendships

Even though he inflicted himself I could understand the pain he was in. But through all the pain and the suffering what shone through in this book were the friendships and relationships. 

The way his friends didn’t know everything about him but let him be that way and accepted him as one of them. I loved how they rallied around him at difficult times. I liked how JB could bring what he felt in his paintings his expressions clear, that he knew him so deeply.

Willem who cares for him so deeply that he could withstand every curveball Jude threw his way and the kind of endearing chemistry they shared. Richard who looked over him like a brother would. I think about how Harold and Julia saw qualities in him, and they felt he could be their son.

A Little Life

What was most heartbreaking was that despite all the genuine, caring, sincere and loyal friendships he had he could not see the good in him. There was so many things about him that Willem had whispered to him like a chant to remind him that he was a good person.

I often crave relationships and run away from them too so I loved how the story weaves in great friendships to a man, Jude who was always tortured and tormented but still lived a good life. A Little Life.

The Chant

To leave you with the most special part of the book for me.

Sometimes he wakes so far from himself that he can’t even remember who he is. “Where am I?” he asks, desperate, and then, “Who am I? Who am I?”
And then he hears, so close to his ear that it is as if the voice is originating inside his own head, Willem’s whispered incantation. “You’re Jude St. Francis. You are my oldest, dearest friend. You’re the son of Harold Stein and Julia Altman. You’re the friend of Malcolm Irvine, of Jean-Baptiste Marion, of Richard Goldfarb, of Andy Contractor, of Lucien Voigt, of Citizen van Straaten, of Rhodes Arrowsmith, of Elijah Kozma, of Phaedra de los Santos, of the Henry Youngs.
“You’re a New Yorker. You live in SoHo. You volunteer for an arts organization; you volunteer for a food kitchen.
“You’re a swimmer. You’re a baker. You’re a cook. You’re a reader. You have a beautiful voice, though you never sing anymore. You’re an excellent pianist. You’re an art collector. You write me lovely messages when I’m away. You’re patient. You’re generous. You’re the best listener I know. You’re the smartest person I know, in every way. You’re the bravest person I know, in every way.
“You’re a lawyer. You’re the chair of the litigation department at Rosen Pritchard and Klein. You love your job; you work hard at it.
“You’re a mathematician. You’re a logician. You’ve tried to teach me, again and again.
“You were treated horribly. You came out on the other end. You were always you.

I loved this for every Jude needs a Willem.