In today's post, Eli Joseph and Rory McConnon choose the five books they'd take with them to a desert island. First of all, here's Eli's selection:
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A compelling story of four friends growing up from college, tracking their lives into adulthood. The central question of the novel is how does someone go from years of suffering and shame to live out the rest of a life?
The depth of the characters Yanagihara creates is what makes this book so brilliant yet also so difficult to read. I also really appreciated the grammar and narrative structure which mirrors the psychological state of Jude the protagonist. In nearly every section, a present-moment scene is interrupted for dozens of pages by elaborate flashbacks, mimicking the way Jude’s past erupts into his present. In the novel, we are watching Jude, not being Jude. For me, this reflected wise editing, because Jude is a spectator too. He cannot control his memories — they control him. A lengthy emotionally brutal read but one I would definitely recommend.
