ALL ONE ASKS FOR IS 'A LITTLE LIFE'

By Scan of book cover, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49017105

The moment I closed this book, I knew I would take months to get over this tragically beautiful story and its characters. 'A Little Life' is simultaneously little and big, at times detailed to the tiniest aspects of living and at others, immensely profound and epiphanic. It takes courage to speak of this book, so I cannot imagine how phenomenal a woman Hanya Yanagihara is for writing this.

The story follows four young friends just out of college to their late fifties. The narration shifts from third person to first person abruptly at times, but being inside the heads of all the four main characters helps us understand and relate with them even better. The story is set in New York and explores the themes of friendship, love, family, trauma, disability, suicide, and self-harm, which is perhaps why a thorough understanding of the book's trigger warnings would be cautioned.

What breaks our hearts is the fact that the story is, at least loosely, based on real events. And even if the characters are living a life that you wouldn't wish even for your worst enemy, there is a small bit of alarming relatability buried deep within. Maybe, this is the human condition.

I believe in the transformative power of reading, no matter how big or small the content is. But there are very few books that make you aware of this transformation. This book can be felt in the deepest corners of your mind. Although I cannot pinpoint the moment when I started slipping away from myself while reading this, somehow I knew from the beginning that I couldn't finish this being the person I knew I was.

This story demands you, as gently as you can imagine, to be 'love', unconditional, all-encompassing love. What Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life offers us all is absolution, unquestioned and humane absolution.

I read the last few chapters with my heart on hold because I knew if I allowed myself to feel even the smallest throbbings of my life, I would fall apart. I would never recommend this book, not because it's bad, but just asking someone to read this would be the same as wanting to hurt that person.

And I cannot do that.