A Little Life

“Under no circumstances would they [JB’s family] allow him to throw away money living in a shithole. They would find him something better, or give him a little monthly gift to help him along. But Willem and Jude didn’t have that choice: They had to pay their own way, and they had no money, and thus they were condemned to live in a shithole.”

At the beginning of the novel, readers may suspect that the gap between JB’s and Malcolm’s wealthy backgrounds and Willem’s and Jude’s poor backgrounds will affect the friend group in interesting ways. As the four friends move into adulthood, however, these distinctions disappear as each man rises to the top of his field—painting for JB, architecture for Malcolm, acting for Willem, and law for Jude. The novel thus posits that some traumas are too great to heal from, even with all the benefits and opportunities that wealth permits.

“He [Malcolm] made lists of what he needed to resolve, and fast, in the following year: his work (at a standstill), his love life (nonexistent), his sexuality (unresolved), his future (uncertain).

This early passage displays the trick of Part 1. In Part 1, in which the narration occurs only through JB’s, Willem’s, and Malcolm’s points of view, the narrative feels like a typical tale of young adulthood in New York City. Malcolm’s insecurities about his identity embody the themes usually found in such stories. As readers move through Part 2 and beyond, however, they slowly see realize that this novel will depart from typical coming-of-age tales both by focusing on intensely, almost unbelievably traumatic content and by featuring a protagonist who undergoes no fundamental transformation of character.