Hanya Yanagihara’s latest novel is the “keenly awaited” follow up to A Little Life, her “devastating story of irreparable human damage”, said David Sexton in The Sunday Times. It consists of three sections all set in the same New York building and taking place, respectively, in 1893, 1993 and 2093. Part two, set in the “time of Aids”, focuses on a wealthy white lawyer and his young Hawaiian lover. While a “less bludgeoningly powerful” work than A Little Life, it’s still “highly affecting”. This is in many ways a “wantonly strange” work, said Claire Allfree in The Times: the convoluted narrative can be “frustratingly opaque”, and there’s a complete absence of humour.

Source: The Times January 14, 2022 09:42 UTC