I was going to get the book, A Little Life, after a lot of people recommended it to me. My favorite genre of books are dark fiction and non-fiction books that go into the psychological plagues trauma brings upon a persons mind. I read them too to examine how an author dissects a traumatic event or events and brings the characters into those situations and how the characters progress. What always shocks me is seeing how other people react to these books. I suffered severe childhood trauma in various different ways. So reading these books is sometimes comforting, sometimes I read them with the intent to relate to a character, in the thoughts of the character towards an event that others might not have thought one would even experience. But watching some peoples reactions to books like A Little Life, and becoming nauseous or being in disbelief, I find it shocking. What are the experiences of people who read books who did not read it with intent to relate to the character. Why did you pick the book up? Im interested to see the other side of the coin. Does the emotional experiences of the characters resonate with you? Do you see any parallels within your our own life and the characters?
In practice, I don’t really care much about the “emotional relation” aspect of a book. I don’t have any particular intention when picking out something to read other than to gain new insights and, to an extent, be entertained. Whether or not a book is worth reading is something I find out as I read along, not when scanning the teaser or general description before I’ve actually opened the pages. That being said, I have a bias towards books that explore the worst of humanity, about cast-offs, the dregs of society, unconventional minds and forbidden behaviors. I have a profound sympathy for characters that are lonely and shunned by everyone. As for A Little Life, I found the story both fascinating and comforting, and while I didn’t experience abuse to the same degree Jude did (plus I found the plot kinda weird), his distorted self-image and self-worthlessness was something that deeply resonated with me, although that was something I did not expect to get when I first picked out the book. All I initially knew was that it was a heavy tear-jerker.