To Paradise – Hanya Yanagihara
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: Told in three loosely connected stories spanning 200-years, we see how characters live in an alternate America that is sometimes idyllic and sometimes horrific.
Expectation: A richly drawn character study that brings the tears.
Reality: The epitome of a character-driven story that lacks the emotional heft of Yanagihara’s “A Little Life” but is still an exceptional work of fiction.
Recommended For: People that like layered, nuanced storytelling.
Why I Read It: My response to “A Little Life,” was almost primal, and I wanted to see if it could happen again.
My Take:
There’s something that feels almost risky about reading a new novel by an author that is responsible for one of the most impactful reads of your life. If you hate it, will it tarnish your opinion of them — and previous works — moving forward?
After a lukewarm reception by a few readers on #Bookstagram, I approached “To Paradise,” Hanya Yanagihara’s follow-up to “A Little Life,” the emotionally taxing yet highly engrossing epic, with guarded optimism.
I can see why some fans of “A Little Life” struggled with this one.
First, it’s told in three very loosely connected parts that read like separate novels. This means none of them feel complete since we’re with our characters for moments in time rather than an entire life, and, frankly, some of the situations are more interesting than others.
If you are expecting another story full of Jude’s and Willem’s and Malcom’s and JB’s — you won’t find it here. The characters are somewhat ancillary to the America that starts as a utopia and ends as a dystopia.
But, if you’re a person that was taken with how Yanagihara can deftly stick a dagger in your heart. How she can speak of the alchemy of relationships and how they evolve. How she can strip various emotions to the rawest form. How she can keep you unbalanced but begging for more. Then, this is a novel for you.
I was engrossed and invested in this 720-page, 29-hour audiobook from start to finish. Not because of a single character, but because of the writing and world building and respect for the genius this creative risk took.
Maybe my opinion will change as the year goes on, but for now this ranks as my favorite read and narration of 2022, and it has me eager to tackle Yanagihara’s debut novel, “The People in the Trees” later this year.
If you’ve read the story and want my thoughts on each Book, see below. If you haven’t read yet, spoilers ahead.
Book I – Washington Square, 1893 (roughly 22 percent of the novel)
Themes: Love is blind; the grass isn’t always greener
Rating: 4/5 stars; Narration: 5/5 stars
Narrator: Edardo Ballerini
The story centers David Bingham, the last single sibling of a wealthy family in the Free States (basically the Northeast U.S.). His grandfather sets an arranged marriage with Charles, an older man from an established family, but David has become smitten with Edward, a piano teacher and escapee from the Colonies.
Here Yanagihara sets the foundation for the rough sketch of what every Book will be, including characters named David, Charles, Edward and Peter. Still, there’s little to no connection between these characters in subsequent stories, outside of the location in which we meet them.
This felt like a call-back to classic literature of the Gilded Age. Secrets, classism, family expectations and choosing heart over head are recurring themes, but the story felt fresh thanks to descriptions of an America split into six distinct countries and the utopia of the Free States where, as you guessed it, slavery never existed and same sex marriage is legal.
David was a frustrating character, but I appreciated the depth that Yanagihara gave him. The final confrontation between him and Charles was tense yet reserved — perfect for the period. While I was sometimes bored by his story, he is one character I continue to think about, especially since he gave it all away to follow a (possible) huckster.
Book II – Lip-Wao-Nahele, 1993 (roughly 28 percent of the novel)
Theme: Sins of the father
Rating: 4/5 stars; Narration: 4/5 stars
Narrators: Feodor Chin and Kurt Kanazawa
Largely lambasted as the slowest section of the novel, this seems to be where most readers decide to DNF “To Paradise,” and it’s a shame, because I was fully engrossed in this story of a father and son.
Part I takes place in Washington Square in 1993, where David Bingham, a native Hawaiian paralegal starts a relationship with Charles, a much older partner in his law firm. Yanagihara gives hints at David’s background — why he feels like an outsider among Charles’ successful friends and the shameful secrets that tore his family apart — but the story is largely contained to a single dinner party for Peter, Charles’ oldest friend, ahead of his assisted suicide before AIDS further ravages his body.
There were two things that really struck me: First, how deftly Yanagihara approaches the politics of a May/December romance, specifically the younger person giving up parts of themselves — maybe willingly and maybe not; and second, the exploration of long-term friendships and how they can sometimes make your romantic partner feel like a third wheel. While there wasn’t as much world building as Book I, there were a few interesting flash forwards that give you a hint for what is to come in Book III.
In Part II, we get answers to what propelled David’s insecurities as it focuses on his father, Wika, a descendent of Hawaiian royalty who never quite met familial expectations. Told as a letter of atonement from Wika to David, there’s a lot of ground covered, including colonization, racism, fanaticism and failure. Yanagihara creates an interesting connection between the not-to-distant past (1960s and 1970s) to today’s political and cultural unrest.
The last two hours were the strongest, but the story felt a tad unfinished. I think Yanagihara could’ve written a whole novel about David and Wika, since when Part II concluded I was ready to listen to Part I again to fully appreciate all the clues she provided.
Book III – Zone 8, 2093 (roughly 50 percent of the novel)
Theme: It’s the end of the world as we know it
Rating: 5/5 stars; Narration: 5/5 stars
Narrators: Catherine Ho and BD Wong
Had Yanagihara released only this section of “To Paradise,” I believe this novel would be hailed a dystopian masterpiece, as it can best be described as a modern take on “1984.” Yet, without Books I and II you cannot fully appreciate how significantly the world has changed between the beginning and end of this epic.
Roughly a 50-year view, each part is told through letters from Charles, a virologist living in New York, or the first-person experiences of Charlie, a lab technician working in one of the militarized and segregated sections of what used to be New York.
This is a slow burn that left me unbalanced yet completely captivated, especially as the connection between our two narrators becomes clear. I don’t know how much Yanagihara wrote before, or re-wrote during, COVID-19, but there is something preternatural about how she harnessed our darkest fears in a subtle way.
While all the narrators in “To Paradise” were phenomenal, special marks go to Catherine Ho and BD Wong whose performances were haunting.
Rating (story): 5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 5/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: February 3 – February 16, 2022
Multi-tasking: Okay, but only plan for activities that still allow you to concentrate.
