Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

For discussions of subjects relating to literature and theater.
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by Mister Tee »

Number one on this week's NY Times best-seller list.
Okri
Tenured
Posts: 3345
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:28 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by Okri »

Just got my copy delivered yesterday. Don't know when I'll start, but yeah I still think about A Little Life.
Franz Ferdinand
Adjunct
Posts: 1457
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:22 pm
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Contact:

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by Franz Ferdinand »

Yanagihara's follow-up to A Little Life was recently released; To Paradise is a three-volume novel weighing in at 700 pages and has received some divisive reviews. I have it on hold at the library and will probably start it later this week, with some slight reluctance. Anyone else still haunted/traumatized by A Little Life and looking forward to the new one?
Okri
Tenured
Posts: 3345
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:28 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by Okri »

Ivo van Hove directed a 4 hour stage adaptation in Amsterdman a couple years ago. Wonder how that would've played.
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

Revisiting this thread and wanted to say how much enjoyed the thoughtful discussion.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

I had the immense privilege of hearing Hanya Yanagihara speak about the process of writing A Little Life last night here in D.C. and it was a really special evening. She didn't read from the novel, but she sat down with one of the chairs of the PEN/Faulkner Association (of which my mentor is the current president) and answered a bunch of questions about the book.

One thing I found really interesting about her discussion of the character of Jude was that he came to her "fully formed." His character didn't evolve through the writing. She knew exactly who he was throughout the writing of the novel. She was very assured about the craft of the book and discussed the very deliberate structure of the novel as well as the nature in which the extreme highs and lows of the characters very much put the novel in the realm of fantasy and fairy tale. She also touched upon how, because the novel is ahistorical, it relies a lot on the interior architecture of the characters themselves. This is stuff we've touched upon here in this thread and it was nice to hear the author herself expand upon some of these themes.

She also spoke about how the book rejects the recovery narrative where a damaged person goes from Point A to Point Z. She kind of wanted to stop things at, like Point J. The novel, in her mind, is very much about the "tyranny of memory...a character trying to control and manage memory—and losing."

She mentioned that one of her original cover ideas was a packet of razors (glad that got nixed!). Also, her editor wanted her to cut a third of the book. However, when asked what parts he wanted cut, he couldn't identify any specific sections. So, she said that she wasn't going to cut anything. She was extremely friendly during the book signing and very gracious and appreciative of the fans.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

Here are details for Hanya Yanagihara's upcoming appearances to promote and read from A Little Life. She announced on Facebook that, at the moment, these are the only appearances she'll be making to promote the book:

1/28, BROOKLYN, St. Joseph’s College, Tuohy Hall (245 Clinton Ave), in conjunction with Greenlight Bookstore. 7:30pm, $17 (includes a copy of the book)

2/21, WASHINGTON D.C., Busboys & Poets (235 Carroll St. NW), in conjunction with Politics and Prose and PEN Faulkner. 6:15pm.

2/22, SAN FRANCISCO, Book Passage (1 Ferry Bldg.), 6pm

2/23, LOS ANGELES, L.A. Public Library (630 West Fifth St.), 7:15pm. Event is free but ticketed.

3/22, DALLAS, Dallas Museum of Art (1717 North Harwood), 7:30pm.

3/23, AUSTIN, BookPeople (603 North Lamar Blvd.), 7pm.

3/31, PHILADELPHIA, Free Library of Philadelphia (1901 Vine St.), 7:30pm
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

Okri wrote:The title of the review suggests it isn't worth reading.
It's a very hateful read, but I made myself get through it. Interestingly, there's a response "Letter to the Editor" kind of thing from Yanagihara's editor and then a response from Mendelsohn (the writer of the original review) to that where things get quite intense.

If your book is causing that much discussion and debate, I'd consider it a success.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Okri
Tenured
Posts: 3345
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:28 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by Okri »

The title of the review suggests it isn't worth reading.
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

David Mendelsohn's largely negative review in The New York Review of Books is causing a bit of a stir, especially with the most ardent fans of A Little Life (some heavy spoilers early on):

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... mong-pals/

Talk about missing the point. It's such a singular and unique novel that it's understandably thrown a lot of critics (like this one) into a tizzy. Yanagihara purposely resists the kind of catharsis that everyone thinks a novel is supposed to deliver and that really bothers certain critics and readers. The passages that Mendelsohns points out as faulty might have some questionable grammar, but they're simply outweighed by other passages that are so demanding of the reader's investment and so damn true (and are also so based in the power of language which I love and respond to so dramatically in my own writing) it's just mind-shattering. For example, I dare any critic to read the x=x passage of the book and try to not admit it's brilliant beyond comprehension.

What is your take on this review?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

Hanya Yanagihara dresses up as her favorite character from literature in this week's New York Magazine. (It's Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley)

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/11/novelis ... cters.html
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
CalWilliam
Temp
Posts: 340
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:35 pm
Location: Asturias, Spain

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by CalWilliam »

flipp525 wrote:
CalWilliam wrote:I like that notion, the realm of possibility, but as long as I was reading The Axiom of Equality, what struck me most was admiting to myself that Caleb's behaviour could really be plausible, I mean, getting to know an interesting, sensitive guy that turned out to be that insane, that evil. Again, maybe I'm too young. What I try to figure out is how Caleb's psyche works, but I didn't get to really understand it, so that was for me the most frustrating part of the novel. What do you think? Did Yanagihara wanted us to empathize wich such a disturbed person? I think she did, but I wasn't able to understand Caleb, though I agree he was a fascinating character for this reason.
Caleb is certainly one of the more fascinating characters in the book. In many ways, he is the classic perpetrator of abuse. But Yanagihara adds some interesting shades to his character that temper the stock villain angle he could so easily have devolved into, not out of, I think, a sense of empathy, but in an effort to alter Jude's perception of safety as an adult. The horrific attack(s) by Caleb are, of course, what lead Jude to confront his abuse by Brother Luke and the legions of men who raped him for years in those motel rooms. In the fairy tale nature of the novel, Caleb has all the charm, yet all the ferocity and evil of the big bad wolf.
That's a very interesting thing to say. I think it's outstanding the way Yanagihara prepared us to be excited about the possibility of Jude being in a relationship, as it was so how she introduced what could have been previously foretold, given the novel's nature: ''The first time Caleb hit Jude...'', in such a seamless procedure. It's paradoxically shocking, admirable and upsetting at the same time.

What about Malcolm's sexuality? It appears to be a conflict at the beginning, but it's never explored again, only letting us know his relationship with Sophie. I always thought he was, in fact, secretly in love with Jude.

And another aspect I'd like to point out is Harold's epistolary fragments. I recall their appearance only three times if I'm not mistaken: second chapter of The Postman, second chapter of The Axiom of Equality and the final Lispenard Street. It's extraordinary that if she's going to use the first person she decided to do so from a supporting character's point of view, as a letter to Willem, apparently once he has died, as a sort of atonement for his own frustration with Jude, as a kind of relief. I consider Harold the moral centre of the novel, so I think that was another extremely wise choice.
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light". - Dylan Thomas
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

CalWilliam wrote:I like that notion, the realm of possibility, but as long as I was reading The Axiom of Equality, what struck me most was admiting to myself that Caleb's behaviour could really be plausible, I mean, getting to know an interesting, sensitive guy that turned out to be that insane, that evil. Again, maybe I'm too young. What I try to figure out is how Caleb's psyche works, but I didn't get to really understand it, so that was for me the most frustrating part of the novel. What do you think? Did Yanagihara wanted us to empathize wich such a disturbed person? I think she did, but I wasn't able to understand Caleb, though I agree he was a fascinating character for this reason.
What's interesting to me in that regard is how Jude himself also can't really work out what Caleb's deal is either. Remember, he finds out about his death from pancreatic cancer later in the novel and reads in his obituary that he had a partner and he thinks, well, what if it was just Jude himself that brought that side of Caleb out and this partner of his never had to see it. I mean, we all know that an abuser is an abuser. Caleb likely also abused his subsequent boyfriends because that's just how it works. But, in Jude, Caleb also had pretty much the perfect victim: someone who already - before Caleb even came along - believed that he deserved to be used and abused by people. Not only believed that he deserved it, but also expected it.

Caleb is certainly one of the more fascinating characters in the book. In many ways, he is the classic perpetrator of abuse. But Yanagihara adds some interesting shades to his character that temper the stock villain angle he could so easily have devolved into, not out of, I think, a sense of empathy, but in an effort to alter Jude's perception of safety as an adult. The horrific attack(s) by Caleb are, of course, what lead Jude to confront his abuse by Brother Luke and the legions of men who raped him for years in those motel rooms. In the fairy tale nature of the novel, Caleb has all the charm, yet all the ferocity and evil of the big bad wolf.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
CalWilliam
Temp
Posts: 340
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:35 pm
Location: Asturias, Spain

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by CalWilliam »

flipp525 wrote:
CalWilliam wrote:Anyway, I don’t think of A Little Life as a realistic novel, but a meditation of where are mankind’s limits, where are love’s limits, friendship’s, evil’s, resilience’s…
Which, I think, is a great way to look at the novel, CalWilliam. Yanagihara has mentioned in several interviews that she envisioned A Little Life as a "fairy tale" where certain elements are heightened for effect. One other thing she said though that interests me as a counter-balance to that statement, is that nothing in the novel is out of the realm of possibility (which I think is also true).
I like that notion, the realm of possibility, but as long as I was reading The Axiom of Equality, what struck me most was admiting to myself that Caleb's behaviour could really be plausible, I mean, getting to know an interesting, sensitive guy that turned out to be that insane, that evil. Again, maybe I'm too young. What I try to figure out is how Caleb's psyche works, but I didn't get to really understand it, so that was for me the most frustrating part of the novel. What do you think? Did Yanagihara wanted us to empathize wich such a disturbed person? I think she did, but I wasn't able to understand Caleb, though I agree he was a fascinating character for this reason.
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light". - Dylan Thomas
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Official A LITTLE LIFE Thread

Post by flipp525 »

CalWilliam wrote:Anyway, I don’t think of A Little Life as a realistic novel, but a meditation of where are mankind’s limits, where are love’s limits, friendship’s, evil’s, resilience’s…
Which, I think, is a great way to look at the novel, CalWilliam. Yanagihara has mentioned in several interviews that she envisioned A Little Life as a "fairy tale" where certain elements are heightened for effect. One other thing she said though that interests me as a counter-balance to that statement, is that nothing in the novel is out of the realm of possibility (which I think is also true). She specifically states that we tend to only hear the stories of abuse victims who have triumphed over their trauma and she wanted to tell one of the hundreds of thousands of other stories that are out there.

I saw a brilliant production of Tracy Letts' Bug at the Anacostia Arts Center in D.C. this past weekend. The entire play takes place in a run-down motel room and I couldn't help but think about Jude at certain moments.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Post Reply

Return to “The Cam Dagg Memorial Theatre and Literature Forum”