#bookreviewph

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

The novel talks about friendship, the families we make, the hurdles we needed to burn, or the skin we needed to tear away to make our lives a little bit better than what we deserve it to be.

Before picking this book at our local bookstore, I already heard so much about it. Friends, mutual friends, people I didn’t know were praising it. They vowed that it was beautiful, that it was “the great gay novel,” it was devastating, and will change your life.

However, I didn’t feel those things while I sifted from page after page.

Don’t get me wrong. The first 200 pages of the book was captivating. It really sold to me the idea of four young men whose friendship could just change the world. If you know me, these kinds of literature are what I’ve been craving for. But that tiny ray of sunshine was not really fleshed out in the entirety of the 700-page novel.

For me, the whole book felt jagged but it kept dragging you by your feet. It focused on Jude, the life he led, and was forced to lead. It highlighted his pain and the already obvious tragedy. It also moved us with him, how he coped, how he found the life we was born to lead. From paragraph to paragraph, we met the people that Jude met and made his life more than what he makes it to be. 

I loved that aspect of the book. It had fleshed out characters and their stories were interesting enough to get you by. But that wasn’t enough. What was missing were their interactions, the little images of the gang while they found their way through New York and made their own names, or how they found solace in one another, how Jude bakes and cooks for them, or how JB draws them in their most fragile. We didn’t get that throughout the novel, just bits and pieces of what we could have had.

What was lacking in the friendship sense, however, redeemed itself in the family. Those were the most beautiful scenes. The ones with Harold and Julia. The ones where family isn’t who you give birth to, whose blood flows in your veins, but family is where and what and who you choose it to be.

This book isn’t the greatest, nor is it bland. It was a long, painful read because of the tragedies on top of another on top of yet another. You need to suspend your disbelief because of the unbelievable pain porn that it will present to you. The impossible circumstances of the testosterone-filled gang, how they found their way up the ladder, how they used their (already present) privilege, and how it makes us believe that this is somehow something melancholic and something that we must be in awe with. 

It had a shallow understanding of gender and racial identity. It wasn’t talked about, not given enough color, not given enough issues, not resolved. The issues were only cherries on top, sprinkles on a cake - not necessary, just needed to make it seem better, worthwhile.

The book sold itself through friendship, fluidity, family, identity, trauma, childhood. It tackled so much -- too much -- that it wasn’t able to get a hold of what it really wanted to say. 

Minsan, hindi ko maiwasang tanungin ang sarili ko bakit nga ba ako baliw na baliw sa pagbabasa? Tapos, sasagot din naman ako ng, “Kasi, d’yan ka nakakalimot nang panandalian. Ito ‘yung scapegoat mo sa realidad ng buhay. ‘Pag sobrang fcked up na ‘yung buhay mo at gusto mong magrelaks.” 

Minsan, may nagtanong sakin bakit daw laging English books ang binabasa ko. Sabi ko, para mahasa lang ang language ko. Pangarap ko kasing magsulat ng libro na medium ko, English. Pero hanggang ngayon, hindi pa rin natutupad ‘yun. Ewan ko ba.

Gusto mo rin ba’ng magbasa kaya ka nandito?

O may hinahanap kang libro na gusto mong malaman kung ‘worth-it’ ba ng oras mo?

Then, you’re at the right place, amigo.

“You can be naked with someone and remain unknowable. You can be someone's secret without ever knowing what the full secret is. You can know he's even more scared than you are, but that doesn't make you any less scared yourself.” You Know Me Well is my second Levithan book, my first LaCour book, and boy, it turned out to be pretty fantastic! One cold monsoon night, I was trapped in a bookstore busily browsing potential favorite books to add in my shelves. I didn’t bring enough money at that time and was caught in a dilemma of using my debit card for this book--because the premise sounds good! But I cautioned, controlling myself from buying it because of doubts, in which I think it shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Because let me tell you, this book is so so good. Realistic. Heartwarming. Mark and Kate are two highschoolers, the former being a junior and the latter a senior. They’re nothing alike but their souls at this specific time land in the same ground. In their first ‘meeting’, a timeless realization of knowing a long lost friend, they know they connected. They realize they had a red string. They become friends--best ones--in a short amount of time. And it’s for you to find out why. All I can say is, their friendship is so realistic it hurts my heart. There’s a friend whom you were building a bond with since childhood and there’s a friend who you can easily rely on even if you just knew them for a couple of hours. Mark and Kate belong to the latter and then the magic begins. The writing is easy to go through and very entertaining. Although, I sometimes find some phrases annoying but it didn’t bother me that much entirely. I think the authors used those, trying hard to please us, in a way that they wanted to connect to the readers. But it was overall great--they gave it justice--since the characters they created deeply connected to me. It was as if I know them. It was as if I am them. The characters are sensible. So far, they’re the book characters I want to bring in real life and befriend them. They’re genuine and broken, beautiful and ugly, honest and lovely. They’re very much adorable and I couldn’t help it. While reading chapters from the book, when they ever feel lonely and sad, I was constantly wishing to be there for them. Hug them. Tell them that it’ll turn out to be okay. Just be there for them. And that’s what I love about this book. The authors skillfully emphasized friendship and not romance. It’s hard to find books like these. For me, personally, the intimacy between friends is just as magical as with the lovers’. And I appreciate it when authors do that because it gives us hope--that somehow platonic love is at par with romantic love. The only two things I had an issue with this novel is the length and family dynamics. I wish each main character’s families were more involved in the plot because we can’t ignore that family is an ultimate factor in stories like these. Also, I want more of this story! I only read this in three sittings, one to two hours each, and found that it was too short! I needed more Mark, Kate, Violet, Ryan, Lehna, June and Uma, and Quinn in my life. I WISH THERE WILL BE A SPIN-OFF ABOUT HANK AND QUINN! OH PLEASE LET IT HAPPEN! Overall, it was a great read. Perfect for contemporary, LGBT-themed and friendship read. Writing: 8.5/10 Characters/Character Development: 9.5/10 Plot/Plot Pacing: 8/10 WOW Factor: 8.5/10 TOTAL: 34.5/40

I really liked it! Great for people who are looking for ideas on how to properly set your mind, body and even soul in achieving your financial goals. Thanks for my friends, Aiby and Gershon, for letting me borrow this book. I learned a lot from it.

The only thing that I think what's lacking in this book is a thorough explanation about business networking. I was expecting some enlightening answers prior to reading this book with regards to this certain topic but the author only mentioned it once or twice. It was vaguely explained but I now understand that it's not actually the main theme of the book. My bad.

Writing: 7/10 Life Lessons: 10/10