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potterpav's review
reflective
tense
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
3.0
i don’t really know what to make of this book.. i really enjoyed the first half, esp the “ivan the terrible” chapter, as i found ivan to be the most interesting character of all, but i don’t know whether my dissatisfaction has to do with the characters or the fact it was a short story collection. it was probably “the point” to not like any of the characters, they were all very pretentious but i assumed it was on purpose, and i found their conversations very taxing to read again and again as they kept arguing over the same points but not doing anything about it.
it’s a shame bc the woman with the sturgeon farm (Bea) was my fav chapter, but she appears briefly for 20 pages and is never seen again - and i realise i liked this the most bc it was something different to the rest of the book. it’s so focused around men that i got a glimpse of a woman and fell to my knees with joy, only for her to leave as quickly as she arrived. fatima was also so enclosed in a man’s world, and the women in seamus’s poetry class were unkind, purposefully-ignorant. i feel like that’s what most of the book can be drilled down to: none of the conversations match up. the characters just say a sentence that has a perfectly normal response (“how are you feeling?” “i’m okay, how are you?”) but instead they just talk to each other in mismatched sentences. it’s probably supposed to show how self-centred they all are, but after 300 pages it just gets annoying.
if you like passive yet irritating characters who come from wealth, are all basically the same (to the point where names mean nothing), are all in one big casual friends w benefits relationship, and books where there’s many, MANY characters .. this is for you. writing was beautiful if not a bit too poetic sometimes, i felt the point got lost occasionally, but yeah. some bits really were stunning, but overall it was just a bit .. flat. i suppose.
it’s a shame bc the woman with the sturgeon farm (Bea) was my fav chapter, but she appears briefly for 20 pages and is never seen again - and i realise i liked this the most bc it was something different to the rest of the book. it’s so focused around men that i got a glimpse of a woman and fell to my knees with joy, only for her to leave as quickly as she arrived. fatima was also so enclosed in a man’s world, and the women in seamus’s poetry class were unkind, purposefully-ignorant. i feel like that’s what most of the book can be drilled down to: none of the conversations match up. the characters just say a sentence that has a perfectly normal response (“how are you feeling?” “i’m okay, how are you?”) but instead they just talk to each other in mismatched sentences. it’s probably supposed to show how self-centred they all are, but after 300 pages it just gets annoying.
if you like passive yet irritating characters who come from wealth, are all basically the same (to the point where names mean nothing), are all in one big casual friends w benefits relationship, and books where there’s many, MANY characters .. this is for you. writing was beautiful if not a bit too poetic sometimes, i felt the point got lost occasionally, but yeah. some bits really were stunning, but overall it was just a bit .. flat. i suppose.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Hate crime, Homophobia, and Abortion
alyssaakdefusco's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The prose of this book is gorgeous, which is fitting because it starts out from the perspective of creative writing grad students! As a current grad student, I related to the struggles of the characters in figuring out their place in the world and always having to prove themselves to each other (and...to themselves!) it was fairly slow moving and definitely a character study/moment-in-time type of book which isn't always my favorite. I liked the shifting narrators.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Abortion
kitaface's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Death of parent
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Abortion, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Animal death and Kidnapping
chadedarby's review
emotional
reflective
tense
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment
emma_ekb's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-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
4.5
this might go up .25 stars? not sure yet.
brandon taylor has such a way with words. the way he captures emotion and friendship and love and lust and anguish and grief, and the way all of those feelings interact, is tangible. what’s interesting about this book is i didn’t necessarily LIKE the characters, but they felt real to me, and i couldn’t help but empathize with their struggles. even characters i thought i didn’t like at all at first, like Timo, i eventually came around to seeing them as these super three dimensional beings - like real people! not sure this is making sense but it’s what i feel. my favorite characters were definitely fyodor, timo and fatima… though i liked seamus’ arc as well.
as someone who grew up in iowa city, i also LOVED all the iowa city references. the bread garden, the ped mall, the quad, the hawkeyes banners…. definitely made my little heart happy
brandon taylor has such a way with words. the way he captures emotion and friendship and love and lust and anguish and grief, and the way all of those feelings interact, is tangible. what’s interesting about this book is i didn’t necessarily LIKE the characters, but they felt real to me, and i couldn’t help but empathize with their struggles. even characters i thought i didn’t like at all at first, like Timo, i eventually came around to seeing them as these super three dimensional beings - like real people! not sure this is making sense but it’s what i feel. my favorite characters were definitely fyodor, timo and fatima… though i liked seamus’ arc as well.
as someone who grew up in iowa city, i also LOVED all the iowa city references. the bread garden, the ped mall, the quad, the hawkeyes banners…. definitely made my little heart happy
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, and Abortion
megansmith's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
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.
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,
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abortion, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying, Racism, Terminal illness, and Stalking
jcxjab's review
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Sexual harassment
writtenontheflyleaves's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor 📝 ad/gifted proof courtesy of @jonathancape
🌟🌟🌟🌟
📝 The plot: In Iowa City, a group of lovers, exes and friends go about their lives - attending poetry seminars and dance classes, arguing with their partners, working shitty jobs. They are each on the edge of an uncertain future, a boundary they occupy together though each experiences it entirely alone.
Brandon Taylor is an auto-buy author for me. Real Life, his first novel, is one of my favourite books of all time, and Filthy Animals, his collection of short stories also set in Iowa City, was a five star read for me last year.
What I love about Taylor's writing is that it always strikes me as knife-like: the cold, reflective flat of the blade, the gasp of the sharp edge, the hot pulse of something desperate and living underneath. The Late Americans gives free rein to these skills because it takes you through the lives of several characters, letting you glimpse them through each other's eyes. It allows you to see both their cruelty and their yearning, which isn't something a lot of writers can pull off, to make you hate a character in one moment and ache for them the next.
What held this back from being a five star read for me is simply my own preferences - I loved how deep we travelled into Wallace's head in Real Life, and I love being able to really settle in and focus on one character. This was a beautiful, searching novel though and if you love spending time with an ensemble of complex characters this is the book for you!
📝 Read it if you love short story cycles and especially Taylor's Filthy Animals as this was a similar vibe. Also if you like stories about students on the precipice of quote-unquote "adulthood".
🚫 Avoid if you're steering clear of scenes of sexual assault and violence right now, or if you are deep in the post-grad crisis and are looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, as this is definitely all tunnel lol
#thelateamericans #brandontaylor
🌟🌟🌟🌟
📝 The plot: In Iowa City, a group of lovers, exes and friends go about their lives - attending poetry seminars and dance classes, arguing with their partners, working shitty jobs. They are each on the edge of an uncertain future, a boundary they occupy together though each experiences it entirely alone.
Brandon Taylor is an auto-buy author for me. Real Life, his first novel, is one of my favourite books of all time, and Filthy Animals, his collection of short stories also set in Iowa City, was a five star read for me last year.
What I love about Taylor's writing is that it always strikes me as knife-like: the cold, reflective flat of the blade, the gasp of the sharp edge, the hot pulse of something desperate and living underneath. The Late Americans gives free rein to these skills because it takes you through the lives of several characters, letting you glimpse them through each other's eyes. It allows you to see both their cruelty and their yearning, which isn't something a lot of writers can pull off, to make you hate a character in one moment and ache for them the next.
What held this back from being a five star read for me is simply my own preferences - I loved how deep we travelled into Wallace's head in Real Life, and I love being able to really settle in and focus on one character. This was a beautiful, searching novel though and if you love spending time with an ensemble of complex characters this is the book for you!
📝 Read it if you love short story cycles and especially Taylor's Filthy Animals as this was a similar vibe. Also if you like stories about students on the precipice of quote-unquote "adulthood".
🚫 Avoid if you're steering clear of scenes of sexual assault and violence right now, or if you are deep in the post-grad crisis and are looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, as this is definitely all tunnel lol
#thelateamericans #brandontaylor
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment