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“Hey Siri, schedule a full emotional breakdown January 11th, 2022. Thanks sis.”
In many ways, the premise of To Paradise, the follow up to Hanya Yanagihara's smash hit novel A Little Life, is simple. Three parts telling stories across three centuries in 'American' history. 'American,' here, is in quotes as it's reminiscent of, but not identical to America as we know it.In Part One we experience the highs and lows of romance and coming-of-age in the form of twenty-something bachelor David Bingham in 1893 New York. He's set up for an arranged marriage by his grandfather, with...
Destined to be one of the most talked about books of 2022.Hanya Yanagihara’s previous “Little Life” was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize and (even despite not winning the prize) six years further on, still I think remains one of (if not) the shortlisted book from the last few years most likely to provoke some form of reaction in those who have read it. Selling an astonishing 250,000+ UK copies of a 700+ trigger-ladened US literary novel speaks for itself, and explains the excitement the 202...
if "this zoom meeting could have been an email" was a book
When Hanya Yanagihara publishes a new book, it is a global event: For months now, publishers have been fueling discussions and speculations about "To Paradise". While Houellebecq, French literary superstar, made journalists legally declare to not publicly say one word about his new oeuvre before the publication date, Yanagihara had expensively packaged review copies shipped to bloggers and journalists all over the world. Both strategies are of course tools to create hype, but Yanagihara’s approa...
I really liked this book because I love Yanagihara's prose style. She takes as much time as she wants to unravel even the smallest details. It's like, yes, girl go ahead! This is really three short novels about people reaching for paradise in very different ways. There is a lot of world building that I found interesting even when it didn't contribute to the story as much as I thought it might. The first two books especially have a fable-like quality to them. As with previous work, there is a lot...
DNFI truly don’t know what Hanya was trying to do with a revisionist version of early America. She went wild with degrading Black people and there were far too many anti-indigenous comments thrown into the first half of the book. I was grasping for a reason as to why she was setting the first third of her novel in this time period. Was it to excuse the racism she so happily sprinkled into the novel? What was the true point of this first third of the novel? I tried to understand her mindset but g...
This is a hot mess of a book, a three-part fictionalized account of a past and future United States. The heart of the work is Book 3, a compelling dystopian depiction of a late 21st century New York, ravaged by a series of deadly pandemics and captive to a political situation that has clamped down on civil liberties in disturbing yet believable ways. The epistolary chapters are particularly effective, showing how scientific professionals can become complicit in an authoritarian regime. The probl...
Almost seven years have passed since Hanya Yanagihara published “A Little Life,” a devastating story about four friends in New York City. The novel earned a large audience and widespread critical acclaim — all deserved — but even readers who loved “A Little Life” may still feel traumatized by the plot’s unrelenting agony.Brace yourself.Yanagihara is back with a daunting new book titled “To Paradise.” The emotional impact of this novel is less visceral than “A Little Life,” but only because the a...
| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.If you’ve read my review for A Little Life you know how much that novel means to me. Just looking at my hardback copy makes me feel all sorts of intense feelings. So, naturally, my expectations were high for To Paradise. At first, the Cloud Atlas-esque premise did intrigue me. To Paradise is a door-stopper of a book that is divided into three ‘books’. These ‘books’ are united by their shared setting (New Yor...
