AJ Dunn Reads

  To Paradise By Hanya Yanagihara   4 stars.

  The People in the Trees By Hanya Yanagihara   In 1950, a young doctor named Norton Perina goes on an expedition to a Micronesian island with two other scientists where they are brought deep into the jungle in search of a lost tribe who have members who have achieved a semblance of immortality. While there, Perina discovers the cause of the affliction which, though keeps the tribe members from aging, it also takes away their mental capacities. Perina brings back the anti-aging source and some of the afflicted tribe members, subjecting them to a lifetime of tests. When the scientific community learns of Perina's discovery they race to the island in conquest and competition, destroying the island and its inhabitants in the process. But alongside this story is Perina's imprisonment after the fact. After his first return trip to the island Norton began adopting island children, eventually over many years he is accused by one or two of sexual abuse. Perina recounts one of the accu...

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara This is a beautifully written and thoughtful exploration of friendship, love, and loss, and how the trauma of youth never really leaves you. I'm unsure why the author has received so much backlash for the writing of this story, which I see myself reflected in so much. Never did I feel manipulated into feeling a particular way; isn't that what fiction writing is supposed to do anyway? There is also the matter of readers having such strong reactions to this book, some having cried and others revulsed by the graphic depictions of violence. In full disclosure, I only felt visceral reactions twice while reading A Little Life : the first with the scene of violence with Caleb, which I admit was difficult to get through; the second the end of the story where we find out what happened to Jude, but more than what happened to him, Harold's feelings about it, especially on the last two pages. I felt deeply in touch with this book, as if my own experie...