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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DNF. I grew up too poor and am still too financially unstable to be able to read a story like this without it ruining my day.
“For a lot of years the only way I used to know how to get control of my life was to get mad.”
The Night Always Comes is a short novel about the nearly unattainable American Dream of pulling oneself out of the grueling exhaustion of poverty. Lynette works three jobs (one of which is an illegal escort service) to try to gain some stability for herself, her mother, and her developmentally disabled adult brother. She's finally gotten to the point where it just might be possible, but that hope is being pulled out from under her. As Portland's housing prices skyrocket, she's facing her last real chance to buy their home and secure their future.
I grew to admire tough, savvy, troubled Lynette. Her past haunts her, but she never stops trying to move forward and be a better person—despite how that might be futile, or even naive. This book is painful at times, because even the worst people in it have some depth, and even the protagonist is deeply flawed (though honestly, who could blame her after some of the things she endures). Despite her faults and problems, though, her character is written with tenderness and empathy, and I couldn't help wishing the best for her. This is the second book I've read by Willy Vlautin, and it definitely won't be the last.
I grew to admire tough, savvy, troubled Lynette. Her past haunts her, but she never stops trying to move forward and be a better person—despite how that might be futile, or even naive. This book is painful at times, because even the worst people in it have some depth, and even the protagonist is deeply flawed (though honestly, who could blame her after some of the things she endures). Despite her faults and problems, though, her character is written with tenderness and empathy, and I couldn't help wishing the best for her. This is the second book I've read by Willy Vlautin, and it definitely won't be the last.
Oké, dit moest ik even laten bezinken. Want serieus zeg, wat een shitload aan miserie kan een mens hebben? Dit boek is heel filmisch geschreven; het leest alsof je een soap kijkt en het is zo meeslepend dat je altijd en overal zou willen verder lezen. Beetje van een mokerslag, dat wel.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty good noir novel about the effects of poverty on agency and people in general. I might be biased though as having lived in portland I recognized a lot of the settings so it appeared pretty viscerally to me.
Compact, pitch-perfect, and immensely powerful, this is a crushing look at the failing American dream and the widening divide between those who take (mostly mediocre men) and those who strive against a system stacked against them.
I know I'm in the minority in this, but I don't normally like short novels. I like to sit with a set of characters, with a setting, with a set of themes, etc., for a good long time. But in 200 pages, Vlautin manages to construct a novel that feels fully developed, fully realized (and all-too-real), and fully populated with an amazing cast, some of them good, most of them not, but all of them with a little bit of both.
He gives these people long nearly unbroken conversations with each other, and then frequently juxtaposes those lines of dialogue with long "soliloquies" where characters expound on everything from their relationships to each to other to their simmering rage about their dreams seemingly being out of reach. The effect is that you just feel amazing close to these people in such short amount of time. It almost feels like a play. This shouldn't work, but it does.
I'm being purposefully (and probably annoyingly) vague about the details of the plot. You can read more about that above, but basically, a Portland woman named Lynette pulls out every stop she can imagine to scrape together the money for the down payment on a house. You immediately and unmitigatedly root for Lynette - even as you find out about some of her own past issues. She's as tough as they come, and the 36 hours chronicled in this novel really test her mettle.
This book blew me away. I finished it and immediately started texted people I know who have also read it, basically just saying "HOLY SHIT THAT WAS GOOD, RIGHT?!" This is easily the leader in the club house for Greg's Book to Evangelize for in 2021. Amazing.
I know I'm in the minority in this, but I don't normally like short novels. I like to sit with a set of characters, with a setting, with a set of themes, etc., for a good long time. But in 200 pages, Vlautin manages to construct a novel that feels fully developed, fully realized (and all-too-real), and fully populated with an amazing cast, some of them good, most of them not, but all of them with a little bit of both.
He gives these people long nearly unbroken conversations with each other, and then frequently juxtaposes those lines of dialogue with long "soliloquies" where characters expound on everything from their relationships to each to other to their simmering rage about their dreams seemingly being out of reach. The effect is that you just feel amazing close to these people in such short amount of time. It almost feels like a play. This shouldn't work, but it does.
I'm being purposefully (and probably annoyingly) vague about the details of the plot. You can read more about that above, but basically, a Portland woman named Lynette pulls out every stop she can imagine to scrape together the money for the down payment on a house. You immediately and unmitigatedly root for Lynette - even as you find out about some of her own past issues. She's as tough as they come, and the 36 hours chronicled in this novel really test her mettle.
This book blew me away. I finished it and immediately started texted people I know who have also read it, basically just saying "HOLY SHIT THAT WAS GOOD, RIGHT?!" This is easily the leader in the club house for Greg's Book to Evangelize for in 2021. Amazing.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm always drawn to these "American dream gone wrong" kinds of stories. This one drew me in, but I felt distanced from Lynnette. I wanted to be in her head more. The narration came across more as a fly on the wall reporting the action. The writing made me have feelings about what was happening, but I couldn't tell what the characters were feeling.