I’ve always loved tragedies. They make me feel things no other book can. A Little Life was absolutely gut-wrenching, sad and the trauma was a lot. Possibly too much. But – unpopular opinion – with all that can be criticized about it. I still loved and enjoyed it thoroughly through the perspective of it being a horrible tragedy and not a book that owes the readers character development or a happy ending.
As someone with an impairment not unlike Jude‘s myself, even though I was born with it and am also able to delay it getting bad through surgery by a few decades. The way the book dealt with disability was one of the most striking aspects of it for me and I‘m a little shocked to see how it’s being treated in this community. The apartment scene where JB mocked Jude left me shaking and in tears for probably close to 20 minutes. That scene was like an absolute revelation to me; I’ve never felt as seen by a character regarding internalized ableism and the fears and horrors that go along with that. The book has definitely made me more conscious towards my own disability as I, like Jude, act a little delusional about it sometimes. His disability was extremely well-written and I honestly don’t understand the comments on here sort of dismissing the extent of his physical suffering and saying it played too big of a role in Jude and his friends‘ lives. Disability can be all-consuming like that. It can affect everything you think about yourself, and in a case like Jude‘s, where it goes along with trauma as severe as his, is the center of your life and when it gets as severe as his did when he had to get his feet amputated. The raw portrayal of that suffering personally did a lot for me, even though I am obviously in a much better place than Jude (and will hopefully actually be a lawyer as well soon!)
Overall, I absolutely loved this book and enjoyed every second of reading it. I do think it is very flawed in other ways (like the portrayal of mental illness), but thinking of the book as a tragedy and not a coming-of -age story of some sorts helped me understand and even appreciate the brutally honest portrayal of everything Jude goes through to a certain extent.
I would love to hear guys‘ honest opinion on my thoughts! I truly think we need to discuss the portrayal of suffering in fiction through different lenses other than „did this make an enjoyable story“ more because sometimes, stories don’t need to be empowering to be good, but I also understand this book can feel very different to each person due to their own personal traumas so I‘d love to hear more perspectives.
by may-esty