“A Little Life” has been the most talked about book of the year. The first reviews that I came across had been tepid but offered some good amount of praise. However at the end, reviewers seemed to have come to a consensus that the book is worth the 720 page read. I figured that I should go read it - starting once the audiobook had been released in early October. All in all, I listened from October 10 to November 7th, a total of 28 days. I listened about an average of 2.5 hours a working day during my commute. I took a short 5 day break in between October 20th to October 25th so that I could listen to Career of Evil, the new Cormoran Strike book by Robert Galbraith - JK Rowling. That was a much needed break because “ALL” (as I will now shorten it to be) was a thoroughly draining experience.

The book follows four friends in New York City. They had just graduated from grad school - the school is not named but it is implied to be Harvard - and they are now starting their lives. They are:

• Malcolm (Half black, half white): He wants to be an architect. He has rich parents and lives with them.
• JB (Black): He wants to be an artist. The book notes that his father is dead, but his mother and grandmother consider him their favorite and only child.
• Willem (white): He wants to be an actor. The book notes that his parents are both dead and hail from Sweden.
• Jude (race unsure): He is an orphan, grows up to be a lawyer.

While they start out the book struggling to make something of their lives, they end up all very successful. JB becomes a famous artist and painter. Malcolm starts his own architect firm and makes beautiful buildings. Willem is a famous actor who stars in many big movies of all types. Jude becomes a brilliant lawyer who makes millions of dollars. The book never focuses on their success and the author has said that she considers their careers an example of “effort-less success”. The story never really focuses on the difficulty of their careers.

While at the start the book focuses equally between all the four friends - occupying their heads and thoughts and exploring their pasts - it very quickly focuses on two in particular: Willem and Jude. JB gets middle treatment and Malcolm basically vanishes as his life turns out to be the most traditional. Malcolm eventually marries a nice woman named Sophie and though they don’t have kids, they live happily. JB gets into some drug trouble but comes out alright in the end. He has a beautiful retrospective of his work and ends up with a nice man (he is gay).

So basically the whole book is about Willem and Jude. They have been the closest friends of the four. Willem - who has a remote but pretty ordinary, happy life - has always stood by Jude, who is smart and funny and soft spoken but seems crippled by his past - physically and emotionally. The book focuses on Jude - I believe that his life is the one the title refers to - reveals that he has suffered at the hands of some cruel people.

There is a lot about the book that is extraneous detail but suffice it to say is that it is a miracle that Jude manages to survive this and grow out of it to become a successful, high functioning person. That being said, there are still a lot of things wrong with him. For one thing, he is a cutter. He cuts his arms and body so ferociously and steadily and the description of it is so rich and deep that it is incredibly disturbing. It is a persistent thing throughout the entire book, and it disturbs a lot of his own friends. However the cutting is never eradicated throughout the entire book, he simply cannot stop. It keeps him from being violent to others - and I like that metaphor and can recognize that the concept is so alien to us readers that we accept it on its own terms.

Jude also has self esteem and communication issues. He is constantly self aware of the irrationality of his actions and how they are hurting the people around him. Many times he knows what he needs to say but he cannot say it. So he is constantly saying sorry. If I was his friend I would get pretty pissed.

This is such a huge book that is hard to write a review. How can I encompass a book that is just so overwhelming and just covers so much of a person’s life? And then it ends it in such a way that you feel just so sad. Here are a few motifs and themes that I could not help but notice:

• Running and the freedom of running

• Self loathing

• Dirtiness, illness, disease, decay

• The drawbacks of success

I can feel that this review is a big confusing mess too. Ugh I don’t want it to be that way but dude just read this book.