Hanya Yanagihara’s ‘To Paradise’ is book thirty-seven of 2023 and my third book club book.
This book is massive. Its 700+ pages are daunting, and I felt intimidated by it. But I got through it. And yes, that makes it sound like an ordeal, and in a way, it was. It felt powerful and exhausting and transformative and draining. It’s tough to describe.
Yanagihara has split this tome into three sections—three books in one. She set the first in 1893, the second in 1993, and the last in 2093. She deals with inequality and discrimination in these books. It’s about love and homosexuality, for the most part. The first sees an alternate reality, where being gay is now legal in certain parts of the US during the 1800s. The book in the 1900s seems to be pretty accurate. 2093 sees same-sex relations criminalised once more.
I liked book one a lot. Part one of book two was okay. Part two of book two was slow and dull. Book three was phenomenal; I loved it. These books could be more consistent. I often wished Yanagihara had devoted a novel to each story rather than trying to cram them all into one. Either that or she had shortened each section to fit into a standard 300–400 page book.
It’s a sprawling, ambitious, messy, unfocused masterpiece. It is a challenging book to read. It takes time to get through, and it isn’t easy. It is only sometimes rewarding and is often frustrating. I’m sure there are many bits that I didn’t understand and went over my head. It could have used more editing and refinement.
But it’s still brilliant.
I recommend it to those who are brave enough.
joshuainsole.com 