Paulo Serra, holding a doctorate in Literature from UAlg and a researcher at the Centre for Research in Arts and Communication, analyzes two novels by American novelist, editor, and travel writer Hanya Yanagihara, published in Portugal by Editorial Presença with translation by Miguel Romeira. The first, "A Little Life," was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize and arrived in Portugal at the end of 2022, becoming one of the most discussed books of 2023. With 688 densely filled pages, it is described as essential reading but also as a punch in the gut, containing scenes of self-harm and domestic violence without mincing words.
The novel follows four colleagues from a small Massachusetts university who move to New York: Willem, handsome and generous, who tries to make it as an actor; JB, a scathing Brooklyn painter; Malcolm, a frustrated architect; and Jude, brilliant and enigmatic, who becomes the gravitational centre of the group. Over decades, their relationships deepen and darken, marked by dependency, success, and pride. Jude, despite becoming a feared lawyer, is a man physically and psychologically wrecked by an unimaginable childhood and traumatic past. The title refers to his tendency to cling to a small, routine, and safe life, permanently sabotaging his own happiness.
The second novel, "To Paradise," spans three centuries and rewrites American history and identity in three distinct versions, with character names that repeat as if they were different versions of the same life. In the first part, in 1893, David is a young New York heir in an alternate America where Free States have become independent, with same-sex marriage legalized. In the second part, in 1993, a new David, a young Hawaiian, lives in Manhattan during the AIDS crisis. The third part, in 2093, presents a dystopian future with a totalitarian regime, pandemic, mandatory cooling suits, and curfew.
The author's prose adapts to the narrated eras, with a more classical style in the first part and a more stripped-down one in the second. Central themes include identity, race, family and financial structure, death, inheritance, legacy, and homosexuality, which already ran through the previous novel. It is an intelligent novel that recreates the same story with slightly discordant notes, exploring how acceptance and tolerance seem to decline as time progresses
