To Paradise – Hanya Yanagihara

Fersiwn arall o’r UDA yn 1893: Efrog Newydd yn rhan o’r Swyddi Rhydd, ble all bobl byw a charu pwy bynnag y fynnat… o leiaf, dyma’r argraff.

Mab bregus teulu nodedig ydy un prif gymeriad, sy’n gwrthsefyll dyweddio siwtor teilwng gan fod athro cerdd swynol a thlawd wedi denu’i lygaid.

Gwelwd yr ail gymeriad wedi’i sefydlu yn 1993 mewn Manhattan ynghylch yr epidemig AIDS. Dyn ifanc o Hawaii ydyw, yn byw gyda’i bartner (sydd llawer yn hýn a llawer fwy cyfoethog) ac yn cuddio’i blentyndod gwael a thynged ei dad oddi wrtho.

Ac yn 2093, mewn byd wedi’i ddinistrio gan bla ac sydd dan awdurdod totalitariaidd, darganfyddwyd y tryddyd cymeriad: wyres bregus gwyddonwr pwerus sydd yn ymdrechu i fodoli hebddo… ac i ddatrys y ddirgel o ddiflaniad ei gwr.

Ymhlith y tri rhan i’r nofel hwn, ceir symffoni swynol a dyfeisgar wrth i’r nodau a’r themau dyfnhau: tý yn Washington Square Park yn Greenwich Village; salwch a thriniaeth sydd â chost ofnadwy; cyfoeth a thlodi enbyd; y cryfion a’r rheiny mwyaf gwan; hil; teulu ac ystyr cenedligrwydd; pwer, peryg a chwyldroadwyr; yr angen i ddarganfod rhyw fath o loches a’r dealltwriaeth raddol nad ydyw’n bodoli.

Unwyd y cymeriadau a’r gosodiadau trwy’r hyn sydd yn ein gwneud yn ddynol: ofn, cariad, cywilydd, angen ac unigrwydd.

In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems).

The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him – and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.

These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.