A Little Life

For a start, it’s not a little novel. At 814 pages you’ve got to be committed. I know people who loved it and others who hated it. ‘Hated it’ is an extreme term. Most people simply say they didn’t like a book, or they couldn’t get through it, but A Little Life is one of those books where there is a polarisation of opinion. Most people don’t sit on the fence with this novel. If you are sensitive to the topic of child abuse, rape, and trauma, then this novel may not be for you. It is graphic in its depiction of abuse, and at times it is unrelenting to the point where some people have to put it down.

The novel follows the lives of four male friends from university days through to middle age. The author has created a world within a world; there are no references to what is happening outside their friendship circle, no references to the outer world, no place names of where events happened or what year the novel is set. All we know is that the place is New York. The trajectory of the men’s lives is laid bare: drugs, alcohol, self-harm, lovers, friends, travel and career highs and lows, anxiety, and disappointment. The men support each other through their trials until the time when there is a breakdown of the friendship.

From this point on the novel focuses on Jude, whose past is elusive, and who finds it difficult to talk about his feelings and accept affection. Jude also self-harms and enters a relationship with a man who humiliates him both mentally and physically. We are drawn into Jude’s past, which is just as unbearable as his present. The character of Jude is one of those etched forever in your head. Never has there been a more tortured soul in a modern novel. Just when you think nothing more could happen to this man, it does. Some readers say they can’t cope with the ‘victim’ in Jude, but there is more to this very complex character than victimhood. Jude and Willem have been friends for a very long time. Their friendship takes an unexpected turn when they become lovers and Willem finds himself confronted with the complexities of being in a serious relationship with the very damaged Jude. The parts of the novel that deal with why Jude is the way he is are disturbing, but those parts are some of the best writing in this novel. They are the parts they stay with the reader long after the last page has been read. They make uncomfortable reading, but they are believable. The reader feels the desperation of Jude’s situation, his terrible history, his tortuous present and in our sympathy for Jude, we also feel for Willem. Jude’s past is rendered in a series of flashbacks. This technique works well in this novel.

The central relationship between Jude and Willem, however, struck me as unbelievable. Not because of the nature of the friendship becoming a relationship, but simply because, for me, there wasn’t enough build-up or psychological exploration of how the relationship changed. It changed far too soon for me. Similarly, the adoption of Jude by Harold did not ring true. Once again, there lacked an adequate background as to the reasons Harold made this decision. I wanted a further exploration of how the loss of his own son affected Harold, but there was not sufficient information. There is an over-arching fairy-tale feel here. Caleb the wicked witch, Harold the knight in shining armour, Willem, the rescuer.

There are parts of this novel that are brilliantly written, but, overall, I felt that a lot of the first half was superfluous. It established the elements of the friendship that bind the men but, after a time, the other characters drop away, leaving the rest of the novel to extrapolate on Jude and Willem’s relationship, and now they navigate it. It’s not light holiday reading. It can be quite depressing. It’ll block out the sun and cast a shadow over your day but, for those who don’t flinch from transgressive narratives, it’s a hell of a ride.