Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Late Americans

I have...a TON of conflicting feelings about this book. I think it's definitely a book that made me think and even for the parts that did frustrate me, maybe it deserves more praise just for getting me to think and for riling something up in me?

First, the writing in this book is really stellar. I don't know how much of it I'd chalk up to my 25+ years of living in the Midwest but, I felt transported to Iowa City throughout the length of this book. Taylor is a wonderful author and even in snippets I couldn't quite relate to the characters themselves, I could empathize with their feelings and get truly into their experiences through Taylor's writing. He grapples deep themes in a way that honors these character ages and life experiences. I especially appreciate his respect to the struggle characters face as they reckon with the world at large, while also holding on to where they grew up and how they got to where they are now. It's a constant struggle as a student that I think he wraps up nicely as you enter the last chapter. He's a masterful writer and you can tell he wrote from the heart in this book.

Outside of the themes and respect for the age and time in these character's lives, I struggled with the plot. And maybe for good reason but.. I'm not sure. Maybe it's in how the book is marketed? I feel like the cover of the book misled me to think maybe the characters would show a variety of the town, but, the majority of chapters felt like such a small circle of people, specifically this very tight knit group of queer men running into each other through distant connections. On it's own, I think that could have been it's own book! I found it really fascinating, even if I did not have the same exact experience when I was in college, I could find snippets of what I witnessed in college, seeing friends and mutual connections overlap over time without intending to. I think that's a really honest, interesting book premise and I would've been fine if the book was just that. However, adding in the last two chapters changed this in this book and honestly, it did a disservice to both sides of the book. It almost split this book in half. The only two female characters in this book didn't seem to see a single spot of happiness, either. All the characters have a struggle but, at least in the first few chapters, those male characters have small snippets of lightheartedness or connection through relationships, vs the two women in this book struggle in their past and present continually and only fall deeper into struggle as their brief chapters go on. Fatima maybe got it in the last page but,

even on a fun, "relaxing" trip for the rest of the crew, she's only seen as being offended because two male characters (who tbh do not treat her right and she deserves better!!) make references to her assault and then immediately regret it (dude, didn't yall learn from your friend making a mom joke after she got a freaking abortion?! good grief!), and then the rest of the time she's freaking cooking!

Also, it truly frustrated me all these male characters get referenced regularly in each other's individual chapters, but the one mention the one main female character gets,

it's a brief party appearance by name and then one other brief appearance where she drops she's getting an abortion to another male character...who says his brief "i'm sorry" and only makes things worse when it comes up again later in the book.

Last thing,

I do really resent the fact the two times you have women show up in this book, they both are sexually assaulted by men in their lives. I think there's a variety of experiences you could talk about in this book about the female experience, especially as it relates to college and the paths these women are taking. But you chose the same type of experience, back to back? This book discusses sex quite a lot but, contrasting the two women in this book not having any empowering or purposeful sexual experiences, vs having even just one chapter dedicated to the sex-obsessed Noah, felt so off

In short: it felt really frustrating to have a cover that boasted having a diverse cast of characters from different walks of life be in one place, only for two characters to feel tacked on rather than intentionally woven into the tapestry of these relationships, AND for those characters to fall into some pretty stifling stereotypes. I think some trimming down to re shift the narrative, or adding additional chapters and reworking some of the existing chapters, could have helped this book go a long way.

All in all - I do think this is a really smart, masterful look into a specific town and how the people within it are more connected than they all realize. Equally, I think this book falls flat on it's first promise on the cover, and I think it's what hurts this book from being touted more as a more all-encompassing expose. I wanted more from this but I still gleaned a lot from this book as valuable and important to read. So read at your own risk and also know I have my own biases and opinions that might be blinding me to important points in this book! I definitely want to read more about the book itself and try to understand why Brandon Taylor made certain choices here.

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jcxjab's review

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I thought this book was really interesting. I love stories that just emulate the human form. I wish I had a better grasp of the characters themselves, I got them mixed up a lot and had a difficult time distinguishing them. I picked this book because I enjoyed the writing but I can't help but understand the actual connection Seamus had to the other characters at the end. Maybe I read too fast but nonetheless, I loved the writing. I didn't appreciate the mention of women in the synopsis and then the only mentions of them to be so short and vapid.

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bowtiesandbookmarks's review

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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tree_branch's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

4.0

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claire_reardon's review

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I need an epilogue where Ingrid, Helen, and Linda roast every male character in this book.

Rating is TBD 📚

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carriepond's review

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emotional reflective 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

3.75

In The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor follows a cast of graduate students and those in their immediate orbit in the college town Iowa City. In the opening chapter, we meet Seamus, a white, working-class poetry graduate student who hasn't submitted a poem to his seminar in months because he's paralyzed by all his ideas of what Poetry (with a capital P) should be. Instead, he inwardly, then outwardly derides the work of his classmates as he tries to come up with an idea for the his "great" poem. Seamus also works as a cook in a hospice kitchen, where he has a rough sexual experience with an older man whose father is a resident. We next meet Fyodor and Timo, a couple who are both mixed-race Black men but come from different backgrounds: Timo is an "irritatingly middle class" graduate student while Fyodor is from a working-class background and works at a meatpacking plant, which causes strife with Timo, who is a vegetarian. We also meet another couple of disparate class circumstances, Goran and Ivan, the latter a former dancer who is now working in finance but making amateur pornography on the side. Then comes Fatima, Noah, and Daw, all dance graduate students, and another POV character, Bea, with a poignant story about loneliness.

This is not a plot-driven novel, so if that is something that is important to you, look elsewhere. I, however, love a good character-driven novel where the main thing that is happening is the internal monologue of the characters, and although this is my first time reading Brandon Taylor, I understand that this is a common thread in his works.

There are many things this novel does incredibly, the greatest of which is the depth of characters that Taylor creates. I loved sweet Fyodor and Bea, and ended up feeling very invested in Seamus, who I had immediately pegged as an asshole. And at the very end, Taylor gives us more about Daw, who just made my heart break a little more. And the writing was beautiful-- there are so many sentences and passages that I've underlined because they resonated with me or moved me. I will admit, though, that, despite the well-drawn characters and beautiful writing, something about this felt a little too disjointed, making it hard to completely lose myself in it.

Full of ruminations on class, race, sexuality, academia, art, passion, and love, Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans is arresting and beautiful despite feeling stretched thin at times. It makes me excited to check out his backlist, and I recommend that readers of character-driven literary fiction check this one out when it comes out on May 23.

*I received an advanced review copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Thanks to the publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.*

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