If you’re in any way interested in reading, then I’m certain you’ve either seen an advertisement, or perhaps have even already read, Hanya Yanagihara’s best-selling novel A Little Life.
This lengthy novel is ultimately a story about friendship, companionship, brotherly love, and four male classmate’s journeys through life in America. Based on that, you would think the novel is set well in the past, but it actually spans from the 1980s to the late 2040s.
Although I can’t be sure (given I have yet to read the novel), I suspect there will be some small commentaries on the American Dream and the overall attitudes of the western world within this story. I say this because a crucial element in the story is the move from a small town Massachusetts setting to the glamorised New York.
At its core, A Little Life is a sensitive and varied novel about the hardships in life — such as exploitation, deception, rejection — and the upsides, like friendship and dreams. There is no doubt why it earned its best-selling position, and I really should give it a read someday, once I can prepare myself to work through all eight-hundred pages.
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