History Literature / ALittleLife

%%Zero Context * BunkerWoman: Jude is a rare SpearCounterpart to this trope.

%%Zero Context * BackstoryHorror: The whole concept of the novel is driven by this.

* AdoptingTheAbused: Jude is adopted by Harold at the [[AdultAdopter age of thirty]] after a childhood full of horrific physical and sexual abuse.

* AdoptingTheAbused: Jude is adopted by Harold at the age of thirty after a childhood full of horrific physical and sexual abuse.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Jude is this InUniverse. He obviously isn't entirely white, but due to him being abandoned as an infant, no one really knows WHAT he is. Though going by the author's physical descriptions, it seems most likely he's of Native American or Hispanic descent.

* AssholeVictim: When it's revealed that [[spoiler: Caleb]] has died due to pancreatic cancer, none of the central characters are saddened by this news.
* BackstoryHorror: The whole concept of the novel is driven by this.

* BodyHorror: reading about the injuries to Jude's spine and legs can be pretty disturbing. And then there's the cutting...

* BunkerWoman: Jude is a rare SpearCounterpart to this trope.

* DomesticAbuser: [[spoiler: At the start of the relationship, Caleb gradually began belittling Jude for his physical disability, which escalated to hitting him. Then, after an uncomfortable confrontation in front of Howard, Caleb beat Jude within an inch of his life, severing their four-month relationship with his last act of violence towards our main character.]]
* DownerEnding: The final part of Harold's letter reveals that [[spoiler: Jude kills himself in a violent manner, and died believing he owed Harold and Julia an apology for the kind of person he was. On top of that, several other characters died prior to the final part, and very few of the main characters have survived]].
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Jude has everything prepared before attempting a very violent suicide.]] He does not succeed. At the end of the book, however, [[spoiler: he injects himself with an empty needle and dies.]]

* GenderRarityValue: After his father died, JB was the only guy in his matrifocal extended family, and all the women fussed over him quite a bit.

** JB is a much straighter example, which is why many fans of the book consider him TheScrappy.

** Willem is also this, especially in the first 100 or so pages, but he becomes slightly more morally grey as the story progresses.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler: Harold, Julia, and the Irvines.]]

* PedophilePriest: Boy, howdy. Brother Luke, but recurrent.

* SirSwearsALot: Andy.

* TraumaCongaLine: Jude's entire childhood in a nutshell.

%% * BastardBoyfriend: Caleb to Jude.
%% BastardBoyfriend has been rehauled into FetishizedAbuser (for then the narrative portrays an abuser as sexually desirable). Otherwise, it's an example of DomesticAbuser. If both people display toxic behaviors, it's RomanticizedAbuse. If the romantic partner is an unpleasant person but not outright abusive, then they are just a JerkAss. Please sort accordingly and provide context.

* DomesticAbuse: [[spoiler: At the start of the relationship, Caleb gradually began belittling Jude for his physical disability, which escalated to hitting him. Then, after an uncomfortable confrontation in front of Howard, Caleb beat Jude within an inch of his life, severing their four-month relationship with his last act of violence towards our main character.]]

* BastardBoyfriend: Caleb to Jude.

* KillEmAll: At the end, only a handful of characters survive, and of the four friends only [[spoiler:JB]] is alive.

* IvyLeagueforEveryone: Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm met each other at university in Massachusetts, and Malcolm later takes architecture classes at Harvard and Jude takes math classes at MIT. Harold also teaches at this type of university.

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: [[spoiler: Every character expects Jude to die before Willem, whether because of his health issues or through suicide. The reader might also assume that Harold's letters to Willem take place after Jude's death while Willem is still alive, and we learn that the first part of that is true, but not the latter part. Willem dies at the age of 53 in a car accident that also kills Malcolm and his wife Julia, which no one - most likely including the reader - expected at all. Jude doesn't die for another three years, and he does die from suicide. Jude's death was also this in-universe, much to the surprise of the characters who had been dreading the moment for decades.]]

* RapeLeadsToPromiscuity: Partially deconstructed. Jude is promiscuous as a result of his rape, but generally in other abusive relationships.

* BiTheWay: Willem has several girlfriends throughout the first two-thirds of the novel, but at the start of The Happy Years, it's casually mentioned that Willem has had sex with men as well.