Before I start, I should warn the reader that this book is in many ways extremely unconventional and pushes the boundaries of a lot of controversial things in several isolated instances. This book is, in many ways, a lot like Lolita in which the reader is pushed to the extremes. May be even pushed over! Depends on the reader of course. Truth be told, I loved The People in the Trees even more than I liked Lolita. I love a controversial book, and this one felt like it was testing me and my limits in practically every other turn of a page.
A little on how I came across this book before I delve into the plot and the characters: earlier this year I noticed a lot of hype about a book called A Little Life by the same author. I wanted to check out the book, but unfortunately, both the university library as well as the public library had a long hold list. The People in the Trees however was available, and I decided to give it a go as I had never read anything by Hanya Yanagihara before. And I must say, if you asked me to name my top 3 contemporary authors, she would now be one of them.
A few things of note about this book. I was surprised at how amazingly the personality of a scientist, and not just any scientist, but a Nobel Laureate scientist, was captured in this book. I of course, do not know such a scientist personally. But the reason I thought this to be amazing is because, while reading this book, I kept thinking of another book I read sometime last year. It was called A Mathematician's Apology. It was an autobiography of one extraordinary mathematician of the past century, G.H. Hardy. Hardy of course was a real person with real accomplishments to show for himself. But the tone adopted by our fictional protagonist (or is he an antagonist?) Norton Perina throughout this book was so stunningly similar to that of Hardy's autobiography, or at least what I remember of it, that I couldn't help comparing the two men. One fictional man to one very real man.
Needless to say that this alone would have sufficed to make me fall in love with this book. But this book is so much more than just an autobiography (because of course, this is in fact, a literary fiction.) As I was saying, in many ways this book reminded me also of Lolita, for very obvious reasons. But if we compare our two main characters, Humbert Humbert and Norton Perina, there will be some definitive differences. Humber Humbert, at the end of the day, was reduced to nothing but a pedophile, at least from the reader's point of view. Norton Perina, on the other hand, is a character so complex, and layered, and oh so smart, that I, as a reader, almost started to see things the way he did. Almost.
I don't want to give away too much, but at the same time, it is difficult not to. So, I will say this: Norton Perina, like Humbert Humbert, had a fairly twisted way of looking at the world. Is it because his mind if simply different from us regular folks? Could it be his own childhood that shaped his worldview? Or was it his experience when he was treading the jungles of Ivu'ivu, an expedition that would eventually lead to the discovery that won him his Nobel Prize? Whichever it is, the one thing common to these two characters is that, at the end, they are both as unreliable as a narrator can get. In the case of Humbert Humbert, it was obvious and offensive, albeit sad. In the case of Norton Perina, he drew me in. Hanya Yanagihara drew me in! Norton Perina did something unimaginable, and he said, his words, "I am not ashamed to admit...". He was not ashamed! At least Humbert Humbert knew he broke someone's life. Norton Perina never thought of his actions in that way.
Here, we have a villainous protagonist, unbelievably smart, arrogant, not at all charming, at times infuriating in his pompous ways and self righteousness, and yet, at the end of the book, when he says he is not ashamed to admit the things he did, I simply thought, Oh OK. And then I caught myself, and I thought about what I just read, and I was like... how could I...
One of my favorite book reviewer, Clare of A Little Blog of Books described Norton perfectly, and I quote Clare,
The psychological insight into Norton’s moral ambiguity is startling and unsettling. Widely celebrated for his scientific achievements and intelligence, Norton is also tellingly arrogant, entirely lacking in empathy and even makes attempts to groom the reader towards his skewed view of the world.I surprised myself. May be it was just me, I don't know. I thought I read a lot of really amazing books this year, but I think it is safe to say that this one left one of the strongest impressions yet!
I urge you to read this book. It will push your buttons, I can guarantee that. And you may just end up hating this book, especially if you did not like Lolita for its subject matter, and yet, I would like for you to give it a try and experience for yourself the journey treaded by this enigma, or this villain, that is Norton Perina.
Title: The People in the Trees
Author: Hanya Yanagihara
Publisher: Doubleday. August 13, 2013
Format: Hardcover. 368 pages.
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical, Noir, Psychological
Source: University of Denver Library