Do we really need to know about everyone at a party? It’s often difficult to know which details we’re meant to find important and carry with us through the book. There’s a corresponding problem with the level of detail - sometimes less would have been more. The novel is billed as being about four friends, which it really isn’t, in the end - I have no problem with this but I feel it suffers from having so many viewpoints at the beginning which dwindle, and leave you wondering why we needed them in the first place. In fact I think Malcolm, JB, Andy and Richard are nowhere near as fully drawn as Jude and Willem.

The cast of supporting characters is so broad, and many of them don’t have a lot of substance. Having said that I do have several issues with it. I also liked her use of time - going backwards and forwards - partly because I feel this is how we live (one foot in all our previous experiences) so that they bleed into the present, and partly because I think the book would have been much weaker as a chronological narrative. She also brings you a high level of detail so that you can see a painting, or a room, perfectly in your own mind (though I think this is also a weakness). Hanya’s writing is clear and precise, and she has an extraordinary ability to unpack an emotion into a paragraph, in all its complexities, so that you feel it right along with the character. In the second part of the Spread the Word reading group's reviews of A Little Life as a Bailey's Prize shadow reading group, three more members of the group tussle with this complex novel that, we all concur, is 'not for the faint hearted':Ī Little Life was a great choice for a book group, as it offers up a lot for discussion.

A little life near me