Has anyone read this? I just finished, and may kill myself.
>>7769136
Because of feels or because it's that bad?
Pleb-tier garbage.
Yea, it's really good. I kind of wish it didn't go full Jude as I was reading it, it was more fun reading about them all being cool kids in NY, but I think it rewarded the emotional heft of it in the end, though some parts of it were overwrought and unbelievable (Jude's psycho bf, the kidnapping).
I'm pretty interested in the criticism of the book that it's spawned: The Atlantic calling it the great gay novel and saying it should be read as camp and in the mode of melodrama (instead of sincere anguish), and Mendelsson in NYRB hating it because it portrays male relationships as stunted negative shit, The New Yorker on how daring it was in not giving any form of redemption whatsoever, that friendship can only mollify it for a bit.
I would say it was the best novel of 2015, warts and all.
>>7769153
The prose is not bland and affectless, it's overwrought and way too high strung at times. But it accomplishes the task.
>>7769175
I read it in the same tone throughout. It reminded me of the uninvolved narraton in Barry Lyndon.
>>7769170
I liked Brief Killings way better. Also interesting in that Jude may or may not be gay and may have been forced into his sexuality through his "experiences" and Willem straight up doesnt identify as gay at all. I cant call it a great gay novel, only a narrative of human suffering.
>>7769183
*Brief History of Seven Killings
>>7769183
>Brief Kalling
I made bilingual pun. Am I Joyce yet?
Is it just me or does that cover look like a satire of overwrought "deep" book covers?
>>7769193
Its actually pretty appropriate.
>>7769170
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/12/03/striptease-among-pals/
This is a pretty great review
>>7769136
You saw that cover and still wanted to torture yourself? Your own fault, babe.
a lot of the good feeling about it seems based in the idea that the novel's length and the gravity of its subject matter implies seriousness, but i don't know if that's really fair -- when it swings for the fences and misses, its tone comes off as inadvertently comic.
beyond that aspect of unintentional comedy, i'm not sure how to assess it in terms of what yanagihara set out to do, or if that's even an appropriate way to judge this kind of book; given how, on a page-to-page level, it's pretty much without interest or originality in terms of form and content, it feels less like a novel and more like four hundred pages of external references and signifiers gesturing at the general shape of a book.
in that sense, i get where the reviewers that are excited for it as a watershed moment in queer fiction, melodrama, etc. are coming from; the novel essentially consists in a series of sociopolitical statements that are extremely fashionable to make in 2016. i don't think that's wrong or anything, in fact i'm all for it, but i do feel a little bad for anyone who ended up reading it under the mistaken impression that the idea was to convey any kind of original thought or feeling.
![Morrissey_Autobiography_cover[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/pMVOrEw.jpg "Morrissey_Autobiography_cover[1].jpg")
>>7769193
Yeah, it reminds me of this.
>>7769245
>four hundred pages
720. At least 200 pages of Jude slashing himself with straight razors could have been edited out.
>>7769266
yikes. i only read it two months ago and already it's erasing itself out of my head
>>7769193
I actually love it. It's a perfect cover. I thought it was a man in pain but I looked at the back, "The Orgasmic Man", which made it even better: pain and pleasure.
>>7769222
It is. I don't agree with it but a dissenting voice in near unanimous praise is always welcome. The last paragraph where he does pop-psych criticism about le trigger warning, safe space, students are so weak etc. is worthless though.
>>7769183
It's not that the majority of characters are gay but the whole 'gay novel' thing is regarding its style and tone, queer. And the whole, "I'm not gay I just love this one man only" is so passe but still kind of endearing, in line with its theme of brotherhood being greater than love, or even love itself.
>>7769275
I think the author herself wrote that to make everyone including the characters around him roll their eyes.
>>7769245
It's actual "sociopolitical statements" are rather unfashionable in 2016. Read Mendelsohn's review where he compares it to the gay stereotypes of a century before where the gay characters are perverts, rape children and die, something that is recurrent in Hanya's fiction. Not very 2016 desu but I think he's too shrill regarding homophobia and anti-semitism in general.
What parts were comic to you? I found some way over the top as well, which was pretty fun. I like camp.
>of external references and signifiers gesturing at the general shape of a book.
reads less like a criticism than a signifier gesturing the general shape of criticism,
>>7769136
It's about gay people, written by a woman and the cover is a picture of a man mid-ejaculation.
No.
>>7769296
>I cant read things that are at odds with my set world view, what if they infect me!
>>7769325
>tumblr
Like pottery.
>>7769292
>It's actual "sociopolitical statements" are rather unfashionable in 2016. Read Mendelsohn's review
the fact that, out of a sea of ideologically-based praise, you're pointing me to one of the few reviews that dissents on sociopolitical grounds makes it pretty clear that whatever moves the novel's making could be considered popular/fashionable. either way, mendelsohn is arguing that the novel's implications are homophobic, not its overt social positioning, which, whether or not you agree, seems like a very different claim
>What parts were comic to you?
mostly whenever yanagihara tried to write someone talking like an actual human being. it didn't happen that often though
>>7769334
>im so new I dont know how to link to images off google
is that harrison ford
I didn't like it. Too long, too many irrelevant details and trying too hard to be sad
>>7769362
Yes.
when it gets paperback release or when some kind soul uploads an .epub of it i plan to read it, i fucking love books where there's little or no redemption at the end (requiem for a dream for example)
>>7769634
https://u.pomf.is/ulkoka.epub
"Enjoy"
Can't stand her prose
I tried reading her first book and I just couldn't do it. It reads like something Crichton wrote
>>7769360
>doesn't have a huge folder of reaction images for any occasion
>calls other people new
>>7769334
it's a useful source of images fagtron
>>7769787
autistic =/= oldfag
>>7769668
Isnt there boy rape in that one too?
You don't know suffering.
You know a book is sad when the guy on the cover is crying like that. It's just like, wow, I don't know, I like to be entertained you know? Maybe I'll pick it up if I'm in the right mood. 700 pages too? Hmmm, I'll put it on my Amazon Wish List. Which is getting pretty long! Haha. Anyway, take care Laurie.
>>7769348
what's the difference between its "overt social positioning" and it's sociopolitical implications?
