For those of you who do not like long, slow reads that touch on uncomfortable subjects, skip this blog.  For the rest, this novel was one of the best works of fiction I have read in the last decade. In a nutshell, it follows the lives of four friends from the time they are in college until they are in their late 50’s.  Of these four, the work focuses on Jude St. Francis, and orphan who, up until the age of fifteen, experiences an enormous amount of physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

Yanagihara’s writing is so accurate and realistically descriptive that there were times I almost felt I was sharing experiences with Jude and his friends.

Warning:  There are parts of this book that are emotionally difficult to read, especially sections that describe many types of abuse including cutting and rape.