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A review by criticalgayze
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Let’s start with culmination. I always find it interesting when “literary” authors consider non linked works to be a part of a series (see Toni Morrison’s Dante trilogy or the Beau Sauvage books of Jesmyn Ward). While that is not what Brandon Taylor claims to be doing with The Late Americans, this book feels like a natural endpoint of Real Life and Filthy Animals with its interlocking narratives of the kind of toxic friendship possible only in the pressure cooker of college campuses.
Which brings me to the idea of “the novel.” What does it mean when this term is slapped on the front of a novel? Does it have to focus on the journey of one character? If it focuses on more than one character, do they have to travel through the same plot and arrive at the same climax? Or is it enough for a “novel” to capture a place or an aesthetic moment? Is it enough for a “novel” to be an anthropological study of how different people will react under shared conditions?
I will not claim to have conclusions or opinions on any of the above, but these are the conversations I had with myself while reading.
Do I think it will be awards nominated? I really think it’s a 50/50 shot. I wonder if, especially for the Booker, the “novel” question may affect its chances. I do think the atmosphere and mood of this book is second only to maybe The Shards this year, and there is something to be celebrated in how Taylor can take the character study of the Russian greats and infuse their stories with the kind of suburban disquiet of Shirley Jackson to make realism feel like a domestic thriller or a ghost story.
Which brings me to the idea of “the novel.” What does it mean when this term is slapped on the front of a novel? Does it have to focus on the journey of one character? If it focuses on more than one character, do they have to travel through the same plot and arrive at the same climax? Or is it enough for a “novel” to capture a place or an aesthetic moment? Is it enough for a “novel” to be an anthropological study of how different people will react under shared conditions?
I will not claim to have conclusions or opinions on any of the above, but these are the conversations I had with myself while reading.
Do I think it will be awards nominated? I really think it’s a 50/50 shot. I wonder if, especially for the Booker, the “novel” question may affect its chances. I do think the atmosphere and mood of this book is second only to maybe The Shards this year, and there is something to be celebrated in how Taylor can take the character study of the Russian greats and infuse their stories with the kind of suburban disquiet of Shirley Jackson to make realism feel like a domestic thriller or a ghost story.