Is Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel too long? Yes. Is it good? Sure! Three long blocks, each of which could have been a whole novel, take us to Washington Square in Manhattan in the years 1893, 1993 and 2093. In every century we meet people whose lives are turned upside down by outside leaders who arranged marriage, colonization or pandemic. They all dream of a paradise. But paradise is not for everyone, we have read in the Bible. What Paradise holds in Yanagihara changes according to the eyes that see and the souls that long. Seven years ago last Si Hanya Yanagihara, and very few Norwegians want to associate anything with that name. Say “A little life”, and 50,000 readers will nod and say that book, I will never forget it! Yanagihara’s previous novel became a bestseller here as in the United States. It was nominated for both the National Book Award and Man Booker when it came out in 2015. Seven years later, the author is ready with a new novel. It takes time to write 730 pages. Then it should be added that Yanagihara does not use all her strength to write at all; she is the full-time editor-in-chief of the New York Times Style Magazine. ROJAL MINGLING: “A Little Life” was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2015, and after the ceremony, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (left) wanted a word with author Hanya Yanagihara. Photo: NEIL HALL / Reuters In the middle of Manhattan The year is 1893. David Bingham grows up with his grandfather in his huge house in Washington Square after his parents died. Now his grandfather wants to marry him off to an older, rich widower. Man? Sure, Hanya Yanagihara writes counterfactual history. In her version of history, New York is a free state, only loosely connected with the other states. Here, same-sex marriage is normal. Children are obtained through adoption, often by those who lost their parents on the run from the brutal colonies to a possible protection in the Free State. David’s dilemma is that he has fallen head over heels in love with a poor piano teacher, younger than himself and beautiful as hell. Is it conceivable that the handsome Edward is just looking for his money? We are racing until 1993, when we also meet a young David Bingham. He’s the lover of a rich businessman in Washington Square. His challenge is the cultural baggage, the origin. David is, like the author himself, from Hawaii. His father was a prince and was to become king before the Americans incorporated the archipelago into a state among the States. His father’s fate fell apart, his son is doomed to see Hawaiian textiles and handicrafts displayed as trophies and ornaments in the homes of wealthy New Yorkers. Plagued by pandemics When history is moved to 2093, national borders are closed. The Internet is banned, public gatherings are banned, protests against the government are banned. Manhattan – and the rest of the United States – has been hit by the fourth or fifth pandemic in half a century. Experimental vaccines are being tested. People who become infected are placed in their own detention camps, where they die after long torment. Here, too, we meet a David Bingham, but for the first time also a female protagonist: Charlie has survived one of the pandemics with reduced mental capacity as a result. Her fate lies in the caring plans her grandfather, the virus researcher, has set for her. A corona novel? you might ask. Well, these pandemics have more to do with the dystopian infection that has long been widespread in novels for young readers, I think. The book has frighteningly become more relevant than even the author could have planned. Too far to the goal I get associations to Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, “Clear and the Sun”. In the same way that the Nobel Prize winner only slowly pulls the veil aside in the text so that we understand more of the universe we are in, Yanagihara incorporates the readers little by little into the mystery of the stories. In big swipes and via small detours, intense battles for love take place. The longing for someone to belong to goes again, but can security and adventurousness be reconciled? For me, there are more than a few detours. There will be many people to deal with, too many fragile destinies. On the other hand: Each round, each step to the side, deepens the image we have already seen, what we have been told through memories, in letters, I-stories and third-person stories. The character gallery is large, but far from superficially portrayed. The diversity that unfolds, both within a single human being and in the human mass, is described with a matter of course that touches. I like that I do not always understand where we are going. I like having to pull possible links myself. Besides, I like the author’s reluctance to give unambiguous answers, yes answers at all. “To Paradise” is an original novel that explores our longing for paradise and the sacrifices we must make to get there. NRK reviewer Photo: Gyldendal publishing house Title: «To paradise» Author: Hanya Yanagihara Translator: Guro Dimmen Genre: Novel Number of pages: 730 Publisher: Gyldendal Published: Spring 2022
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“To Paradise” by Hanya Yanagihara – Reviews and Recommendations
