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Debate: Did 'A Little Life' actually break people or just exhaust them?
I keep seeing this book on every 'devastating reads' list, but I'm split on it. On one hand, the trauma is relentless and I cried for 20 minutes after finishing it last year. On the other hand, my friend says the suffering felt like emotional manipulation, not a real story. She pointed out how the main character's pain never lets up, which broke the realism for her. For me, the sheer weight of it made me appreciate my own life more, but I get her point. Where do you land on books that pile on tragedy without relief? Do they break you or just make you numb?
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mia_anderson3mo ago
Nah, I disagree. The nonstop pain is the whole point. It's not trying to be realistic. It's showing how some people just never get a break. That's what wrecked me. Not the individual tragedies, but the total lack of any relief. That felt way more real than a neat redemption arc.
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wyatt5133mo ago
Wait, isn't that basically the same thing though? A lack of relief IS a kind of realism for a lot of folks, just a different kind than the neat arc you're talking about.
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