The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

As a novel this is a somewhat frustrating book, with no real plot and a spotlight that briefly shines on characters only to drop them as the focus shifts. However, it is beautiful when taken as a collection of interconnected vignettes portraying graduate students (and others in their lives) trying to navigate difference and identity and purpose at a liminal stage in their lives.

This was my first experience of Taylor’s writing, and I loved the style of narration — although at least for me the dialogue was all so similar that it (and the large cast who popped in and out of the story) made it hard for me to distinguish one character from another, at times. The stories were fully embodied, and I felt viscerally the frustration, tension, loneliness, and threats of violence throughout the book. This made it uncomfortable when (as happened often) I was frustrated with how the characters related to each other, but it also made a strong overall impression on me, leaving me not with a definitive story but a sense of sharing these young people’s experiences as they tried to find their place in the world.

---

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage, for providing an advanced reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. The Late Americans comes out on June 22, 2023.