Andrew Smith’s Reviews > To Paradise > Status Update

Book 3 is already immeasurably more interesting than the last section and is starting to knit some of the strands together. And it’s set in a future world in which a series of pandemics has created a grim existence we’re probably all a little fearful of right now.

I found them first part of book 2 interesting, but the second part was a battle - I really struggled to get through it. I still haven’t worked out the link running through these stories, or rather I might have but it feels very tenuous. I’m hoping book 3 will enliven my enthusiasm for this tome.

I'm some way into book 2 now and the transition has somewhat confused me. I don't yet have a clear picture of the association between these people and those in book 1. I'm sure it'll become clear but I've come in with no knowledge of the structure and have studiously avoided the blurb. Maybe I'll just have to work it out for myself.

I woke up in the night and read for a couple of hours. I'm reminded how intense the author's writing is. That's to say that it's intense for the reader (me). I recognise in David many things I see in someone close to me and consequently I'm finding it all a bit disturbing. Hanya has an unerring ability to get to the core of people and then to keep digging.

Brilliant description of the joy, doubt, desperation and pain brought on by infatuation with another.

The construction is interesting, with extensive use of parenthesis and the slow leaking out of background information. The feel of this book (its difference, its surprise) brings Paul Auster and John Boyne to mind. And I've learned a new word: flibbertigibbet.

Very early on, but I think I'm already hooked. It's the end of the 19th Century and things are just a little different to what history tells; this is a more edgy version, a mix of now and then. The writing is great too.

A Little Life is possibly the most impactful book I've ever read. This one is a monster but I can't wait to get into it.