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As of beginning this on April 15th, 2026, It’s been about a year since I finished my first read through of Hanya Yanagihara’s modern classic, A Little Life. Yeah, I remember the DAY. And I never realized how simple my feelings on literature usually end up being until just now, when I reflected on how messy my thoughts on this story really are. It’s going to be tough trying to capture them in writing. I’ve tried several times in the past, but my literary analysis skills just weren’t developed enough to really get to the core of what I felt about this novel. Each blog entry I already have up about this book is just talk.

The simplest way I can describe this book is that pinning it down isn’t simple. It’s often described by its critics as trauma porn and sadistic. Hurting the reader for the sake of hurting them. They’re certainly not wrong, but the truth is people wouldn’t be able to get through this 814 page tome if there weren’t more to it than that. People make this book out to be like an abuser. But they paint it as a sloppy abuser… the kind of person that’s likeable, but not quite good enough at keeping their disguise. Someone who says something gross when they're comfortable, or gets a little too upset at the mistake their server just made. A person that most self respecting adults wouldn’t be fooled by.

A Little Life is the abuser that gets you. It’s more intelligent. More subtle. What comes to my mind is the way Malcolm X described white liberals in the 1960’s:

”He’s the most deceitful, he’s like a fox. And a fox is always more dangerous in the forest than the wolf; you can see the wolf coming, you know what he’s up to…but the fox will fool you. He comes at you with his mouth shaped in such a way that, even though you see his teeth, you think he’s smiling, and take him for a friend.”

A Little Life lures you in with the promise of a beautiful tale that follows four young men throughout their lives as they navigate their journeys in, dare I say, the world's greatest city. It keeps you hooked for several hundred pages by appearing to keep this promise as it leads you through, what I must admit, are a wonderful first 320 pages.

And then you get bit.