To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara does not write books for the faint of heart. Her first book, A Little Life, was an emotional rollercoaster, deeply upsetting at times and yet, also full of unconditional love. It was, at times, a very hard book to read. However, it is still one of my favorite books - I think because she doesn't shy away from the dark edges of some people's reality.

While still writing about love, loss, and struggle, To Paradise, didn’t evoke the deep emotional reaction in me (which is fine, I was emotionally wrung out after A Little Life). To Paradise was a trip to an alternative past and (hopefully) future. Written as three separate novels centered around characters with the same names (David, Edward, Charles/Charlie, and Grandfather) and a location (NYC’s Washington Square) central to each story, HY imagines three worlds either slightly or materially different from history. This quote from page 247 strikes me as a possible thesis:

“Suppose the earth were to shift in space, only an inch or two but enough to redraw their world, their country, their city, themselves, entirely?”

In each section of the book, I found the David character to be a lost soul, struggling to find love, purpose and to live up to the expectations of his family. There is a second thesis somewhere in that idea.

Book One takes place at the end of the 19th century in an America broken up after the Civil War and specifically in New York (part of the Free States) where gay marriage is legal and accepted. David is the eldest son of the prominent New York Bingham family who struggles with depression and purposelessness. He is pulled between a solid, arranged marriage with an older Charles or a passionate love with a mysterious, penniless Edward.

In Book Two, this shift is subtle, and character driven. Taking place in 1993, this idea about ‘shifting in space’ is more about a father’s regrets and how family dynamics can influence a child’s life. Here, David lives with another older Charles. Their story unfolds during a dinner party for Charles’ best friend, Peter, who is dying of AIDS, while David carries a letter from his estranged, Hawaiian father.

Book Three imagines the largest “shift” in a futuristic America ravaged by pandemics and the extreme measures taken to protect citizens. New York has been divided into Zones and Americans are living under an authoritarian government. Charles, a scientist working on infectious diseases, moves from Hawaii with his husband Edward and their child to Zone 3. Book three is told in a series of letters from Charles to his friend Peter in the United Kingdom and flashes forward to 2093 to the story of a female character who meets a mysterious David.

I devoured To Paradise – all 700 pages; - reading with rapt attention. I was drawn into her descriptions of unrequited or misplaced love, imagined pasts and futures and devotion of family. Don’t look too hard for the reincarnation of the characters – I don’t think she intended them to be connected generations. I think it was more of a literary device to explore stories with a slight “shift in space.”