Little did I know when I requested A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara from the library, that the novel was 720 pages. It was a brick. The heft reminded me of my time with the-most-hated-of-all-books, The Goldfinch (reviewed by me here – and I just re-read my review which makes me realize I didn’t hate it as much as I remember hating it – but I digress). So, I read A Little Life for what felt like a really long time, and, while it was clearly much too long, it was a remarkable book and well worth reading. You can hardly take your eyes away from the train-wreck that is Jude, but with every passing page, you fall deeper and deeper into despair alongside him. I am honestly glad I read this book and highly recommend it.