Have not had such intense feelings for a book in a while as I have for #HanyaYanagihara's "A Little Life". It's needlessly traumatic for both the characters & reader. And also forced intense. And damn, its over 700 pages & eating up into most of my free time. But just can't stop reading.
Don't know why I even started it. Don't know why I'm not stopping it. 🤯
@bookstodon #alittlelife
I have been wondering WHY I cannot stop reading this LONG traumatising novel. Usually I'd be out after 100 pages. But here, I am. Still at it. During lunch.
There are enough contemporary Realist novels about isolated selves OR romance & oh-so- profound sexual tensions OR oh-so-grey friends-lovers tropes (Yes, I really don't like Sally Rooney). But this novel is one of the most realistic depictions of genuine, lifelong, & fierce friendships, at par with family.
The only spots of solace, for the protagonist (and the long suffering reader) in its agonising plot, are the sections which depict these friendships, and what it means to call someone your friend and also be someone's friend. It's in these sections you can say, this is literary writing at its finest.
Probably the only reason I am still sticking on, (and despite my irritation for putting myself through it) turning the pages to know where it all goes...
Sometimes you have to do certain things, to only understand that you really don't enjoy doing certain things.
There. I give up on #HanyaYanagihara's #ALittleLife. If I were a less emo reader, I would have finished it, just to finish it. But cannot get past another few hundred pages, going around in circles, feeling this morbid & morose.
Onward and next page-ward.
Sarah Farooqui