Hanya Yanagihara all inclusive thread [includes 'To Paradise' spoilers]

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The Queen Of Pop, Dance, Rock, Indie, R&B, Jazz, New Age, Thrash, Metal & Spoken Word
@RaspberrySwirl
 
The People In The Trees was amazing. It’s not something I would have usually touched had it not been written by the Queen of Pop, Rock & Soul herself.
There are SO many layers and little details that it really does lend itself to a re-read to try and catch everything. The way the first half of the book is so lushly written and seems almost magical and then slowly becomes colder and realistic when everything turns to shit and the island is destroyed.

I removed one star from my Goodreads review because of the absolutely disgusting and graphic

descriptions of where the chief of the tribe kills and eats a turtle. Made me feel physically ill!
 
Oh! I had forgotten that spoiler part :D

I soo agree about that description; it really went from a lush magic paradise to some sort of post modernist dystopia. The ending was very frustrating, and then came that final shock that I didn’t expect to read. Queen of magic realism, drama, sci-fi and thrillers.
 
I’m glad that we have the spoiler function, would’t want to read all that in depth analysis and review by accident.
 
I wonder who will hold that little air pump for me when it’s my turn. Not because they think it’ll revive me, or save me. But because they want to try.


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So girls what do we think of TO PARADISE? I'm currently up to the end of Chapter 1 of the third book.

Some general thoughts that don't pull on the plot much:

I'm really enjoying it! The prose is very easy to read, surprisingly so in fact compared to a lot of other authors I've been reading recently. It reminds me of Margaret Atwood at many points - Book 1 has a WHIFF of Alias Grace for example, and book 3 so far has a big HINT of Oryx And Crake (which is no surprise as Hanya has said O&C was an influence on the novel).

It's actually more FOUR stories isn't it? As book 2 has a very clear divide in the narrative that really is only loosely connected via family ties. I think the second part of book 2 is my fave part of the novel so far. How it descends into borderline insanity by the end was a little unexpected, and I couldn't stop reading.

My only sticking-ish point so far is that it does feel a little bit like several unfinished ideas/novellas stitched together using the loosest of narrative strands :D but who knows, perhaps Book 3 will have something of a tie-it-together moment like at the end of One Hundred Years Of Solitude, and of course the house is a constant through each section.
I'd have liked Book 1 to continue to be a fully-finished story in itself for example, it was laying the groundwork to be an epic tome of homosexual historical fiction in ITSELF!

But yes, in short: LOVING IT :disco:
 
I’m halfway through Book 3. I’m much preferring the letters flashback chapters as opposed to the annoying nervous person storyline but we’ll see. I’m terrified to see what Queen Hanya has in store :D

I was VERY ANNOYED by the unwelcome switch in the second part of Book 2, but I was hooked by the time I got to the (heartbreaking) ending.
 
I finished it and book 1 was by far my fave and yes that needs to be a proper Hanya doorstep novel in its own right.

Book 3 as controversial as it might sound was my least favourite. Sorry but Atwood does that sort of thing much better.

All in all I would say 3.5/5.
 
Do we know which part of the novel she starting writing first?
I've almost finished book 3, and I can't HELP but think that she started that one first as her response to the pandemic - realised it perhaps wasn't QUITE strong enough to stand alone as a novel, so wove it together with books 1 and 2 (those sections also possibly being 2/3 unfinished ideas she had FLOATING AROUND).

This isn't a critique as such, as I've really enjoyed To Paradise and will be sad when it ends, but I can't help shake the feeling that I mentioned in this thread earlier - it does feel a little bit like several unfinished ideas/novellas stitched together using the loosest of narrative strands :D
 
I saw queen Hanya LIVE the other day, was quite gagged when she came out to do Levitating (complete with entirely forbidden DaBaby rap) for the encore, but girls it kind of WORKED :disco:

Anyway a few very mild spoilers, but in case she duplicates content for other LIVE DATES:
- She was so warm! I don't know what I was expecting but the press tends to sell her as some sort of cold robotic workaholic that never sleeps. She was super fun, super funny and perhaps a teeny bit drunk. She walked on stage and announced she'd just dropped a xanax :D
- She revealed she started writing book 3 when Trump introduced his travel ban from Muslim countries. With retrospect me thinking earlier in this thread she'd somehow BASHED OUT such a long novel from the start of the pandemic was ludicrous.
- She revealed that 4 different scripts have been written for a TV adaptation of A Little Life (of which she said they were all AMAZING :D ) but no network will take the show on as its "too depressing" :D She's been asked to SEX AND THE CITY it up a bit :D Surprised that HBO haven't sniffed around it a bit, as it seems tailor made for them, but she did say it needs a budget of at least 60 million, and Hanya to be given complete creative control :disco:
- The Dutch stage adaptation is coming to Edinburgh Festival later this year!
- I also found a google drive link of the play itself with English subtitles, for any curious queens (it's 4 hours long)
- QUEEN!
 
jivafox said:
The ending of Charlie’s story in Book 3 was CHILLING.
Click to expand...

I finished it the other day and I agree.

At Hanya: LIVE she said in reference to it:

She thinks To Paradise has a happy ending, to which the audience all just sort of groaned :D
I did like the prose in the book stating that whichever way it went when Charlie was discovered, the Charlie that existed was now already dead anyway (or however it was written). Powerful framing.
 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA said:
I saw queen Hanya LIVE the other day, was quite gagged when she came out to do Levitating (complete with entirely forbidden DaBaby rap) for the encore, but girls it kind of WORKED :disco:

Anyway a few very mild spoilers, but in case she duplicates content for other LIVE DATES:
- She was so warm! I don't know what I was expecting but the press tends to sell her as some sort of cold robotic workaholic that never sleeps. She was super fun, super funny and perhaps a teeny bit drunk. She walked on stage and announced she'd just dropped a xanax :D
- She revealed she started writing book 3 when Trump introduced his travel ban from Muslim countries. With retrospect me thinking earlier in this thread she'd somehow BASHED OUT such a long novel from the start of the pandemic was ludicrous.
- She revealed that 4 different scripts have been written for a TV adaptation of A Little Life (of which she said they were all AMAZING :D ) but no network will take the show on as its "too depressing" :D She's been asked to SEX AND THE CITY it up a bit :D Surprised that HBO haven't sniffed around it a bit, as it seems tailor made for them, but she did say it needs a budget of at least 60 million, and Hanya to be given complete creative control :disco:
- The Dutch stage adaptation is coming to Edinburgh Festival later this year!
- I also found a google drive link of the play itself with English subtitles, for any curious queens (it's 4 hours long)
- QUEEN!
Click to expand...

The QUEEN OF POP!!
 
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