bellaruffell's review against another edition
5.0
Its taken me a week to write this review as I think I have only just processed all of emotions towards it. This is honestly the most incredible book and I am totally in awe of everything about it. I think it might have immediately jumped to the top of my list for the year. The minute I finished I wanted to start again.
Brandon Taylor’s novel is the story of a gay black biochemistry student named Wallace from a small town in Alabama studying in an unnamed, predominantly white Midwestern university. But that barely touches the experience of reading this novel. Taylors writing is absolutely incredible and perfectly translates the emotions of the story, the descriptions are second to none and completely transfix you. He writes so powerfully about the perils of graduate education, blackness in a predominantly white setting, loneliness, desire, trauma and need. Wallace, the man at the centre of this novel, is written with such nuance and tenderness and complexity.
The story is also painfully pure and illustrates all the bruising battle of so many gay black men. Wallace is forced to face his predominantly white friend group and the peers who he encounters in academia which gives rise to conflicts involving: racism, queerbaiting, tokenism, white mediocrity, fragility, and entitlement.
Quite possibly the best paragraph in the world - “This too could be his life, Wallace thinks. This thing with Miller, eating fish in the middle of the night, watching the gray air of the night sky over the roof next door. This could be their life together, each moment shared, passed back and forth between each other to alleviate the pressure, the awful pressure of having to hold on to time for oneself. This is perhaps why people get together in the first place. The sharing of time. The sharing of the responsibility of anchoring oneself in the world.”
Brandon Taylor’s novel is the story of a gay black biochemistry student named Wallace from a small town in Alabama studying in an unnamed, predominantly white Midwestern university. But that barely touches the experience of reading this novel. Taylors writing is absolutely incredible and perfectly translates the emotions of the story, the descriptions are second to none and completely transfix you. He writes so powerfully about the perils of graduate education, blackness in a predominantly white setting, loneliness, desire, trauma and need. Wallace, the man at the centre of this novel, is written with such nuance and tenderness and complexity.
The story is also painfully pure and illustrates all the bruising battle of so many gay black men. Wallace is forced to face his predominantly white friend group and the peers who he encounters in academia which gives rise to conflicts involving: racism, queerbaiting, tokenism, white mediocrity, fragility, and entitlement.
Quite possibly the best paragraph in the world - “This too could be his life, Wallace thinks. This thing with Miller, eating fish in the middle of the night, watching the gray air of the night sky over the roof next door. This could be their life together, each moment shared, passed back and forth between each other to alleviate the pressure, the awful pressure of having to hold on to time for oneself. This is perhaps why people get together in the first place. The sharing of time. The sharing of the responsibility of anchoring oneself in the world.”
kchessrice's review against another edition
3.0
“And the world went on. It always does. The world doesn’t care about you or me or any of this. The world just keeps on going.”
The story covers a late-summer weekend in the life of Wallace, a black postgraduate research student working at a predominantly white university lab in a Midwestern town. His research is painstakingly slow (there is a lot of talk about nematodes!) and his lab partners are on the one hand collaborative, but on the other paranoid about someone else getting ahead of them. He attempts to discuss his feelings of apathy with his circle of friends but finds it hard to communicate with them - everyone else has their own "stuff" going on and Wallace, being quiet and introverted, is often overlooked. On top of all this, Wallace is grappling with his feelings of grief for his father who died a few weeks previously (something he hasn't told his friends).
This was not a cheerful read by any stretch - I think the synopsis gives you an understanding of why this book was nominated for the 2020 Booker Prize (the criteria for which seems to be the more serious/moody the better!)... The complexities of living as a black, gay man in a white, straight community were clearly articulated. The relationships Wallace has with his friendship group were also complex, the alliances with some but not others, the tensions between straight/gay friends - and his covert fling with a straight man was a weird one. There seemed to be moments of tenderness between them but it felt like neither was being particularly honest about what they wanted from crossing the line between friends to lovers.
For me, the scene that I enjoyed reading most was of a tremendously awkward dinner party, where Wallace lights a firework and it explodes, causing a huge argument. That felt like it had the most tension and energy in the writing. Real Life is definitely a character-driven novel, which I don't usually mind, however Becky nailed it when she said that it didn't feel like you got closure at the end. It didn't feel as though Wallace "grew" as a character, or came to any breakthrough moments - I am a little frustrated at not knowing whether he stays on at the lab to complete his research (my money was on him leaving!).
Overall, the writing was good but I wouldn't be in a hurry to pick up anything else by the author - just too somber for me!
TW: racism, self harm, disordered eating, sexual assault.
The story covers a late-summer weekend in the life of Wallace, a black postgraduate research student working at a predominantly white university lab in a Midwestern town. His research is painstakingly slow (there is a lot of talk about nematodes!) and his lab partners are on the one hand collaborative, but on the other paranoid about someone else getting ahead of them. He attempts to discuss his feelings of apathy with his circle of friends but finds it hard to communicate with them - everyone else has their own "stuff" going on and Wallace, being quiet and introverted, is often overlooked. On top of all this, Wallace is grappling with his feelings of grief for his father who died a few weeks previously (something he hasn't told his friends).
This was not a cheerful read by any stretch - I think the synopsis gives you an understanding of why this book was nominated for the 2020 Booker Prize (the criteria for which seems to be the more serious/moody the better!)... The complexities of living as a black, gay man in a white, straight community were clearly articulated. The relationships Wallace has with his friendship group were also complex, the alliances with some but not others, the tensions between straight/gay friends - and his covert fling with a straight man was a weird one. There seemed to be moments of tenderness between them but it felt like neither was being particularly honest about what they wanted from crossing the line between friends to lovers.
For me, the scene that I enjoyed reading most was of a tremendously awkward dinner party, where Wallace lights a firework and it explodes, causing a huge argument. That felt like it had the most tension and energy in the writing. Real Life is definitely a character-driven novel, which I don't usually mind, however Becky nailed it when she said that it didn't feel like you got closure at the end. It didn't feel as though Wallace "grew" as a character, or came to any breakthrough moments - I am a little frustrated at not knowing whether he stays on at the lab to complete his research (my money was on him leaving!).
Overall, the writing was good but I wouldn't be in a hurry to pick up anything else by the author - just too somber for me!
TW: racism, self harm, disordered eating, sexual assault.
bookishfables's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5stars
This too is real life, he thinks. Not merely the accumulation of tasks, thinks to be done and sorted, but also the bumping up against other lives, everyone in the world insignificant when taken and observed together.
A slice of life of a young black man who is studying in a predominately white environment in a midwestern university. The way POC deal with grief and trauma will always be something more and much deeper than most non-POC will realize. Taylor's writing was so goddamn beautiful!!!
Although the book takes place over the course of a three-day weekend but I felt like I knew some of these characters all my life after I finished reading.
The themes of the exploration of grief and sexuality touched upon in this book. There was a lot to relate to, and a decently thought-provoking read this was.
Book Trigger Warnings: Depression, Homophobic slurs, Molestation, Racial slurs
This too is real life, he thinks. Not merely the accumulation of tasks, thinks to be done and sorted, but also the bumping up against other lives, everyone in the world insignificant when taken and observed together.
A slice of life of a young black man who is studying in a predominately white environment in a midwestern university. The way POC deal with grief and trauma will always be something more and much deeper than most non-POC will realize. Taylor's writing was so goddamn beautiful!!!
Although the book takes place over the course of a three-day weekend but I felt like I knew some of these characters all my life after I finished reading.
The themes of the exploration of grief and sexuality touched upon in this book. There was a lot to relate to, and a decently thought-provoking read this was.
Book Trigger Warnings: Depression, Homophobic slurs, Molestation, Racial slurs
crabbygirl's review against another edition
1.0
where to even start? A group of randomly drawn together graduate students who are mostly gay men, who won't eat meat at parties, who use fake personas to approximate intimate relationships with each other, who allow blatant racism to be unchallenged, who can identify their own hurts and insecurities but cannot fathom this is a universal experience, spend an excruciatingly long weekend together gazing at their navels, violating each others' privacy, getting hurt, causing hurt and gossiping. in other words: friends?
first off, the grad student aspect had lots of potential - it IS an isolated, privileged life where the money comes from grants, adolescence gets extended, and it's natural you might ponder the point of life as you watch your old cohort moving on to the next stages of their career. but the author only addresses that through a sidebar discussion with Vincent, a longterm boyfriend of one of the grad students. when the main character toys with the idea of leaving grad school it's framed as a calamity, as if an education is only of value if you finish with a PhD, as if he'd slide right back to Alabama with no prospects for his future
and there is no context as to why Wallace's faculty advisor has turned on him, no scenes of their interactions before the combative rival grad student, the one who accuses him of misogyny, arrives in his second year. this rival grad student has an oversized dislike for Wallace that the reader has to assume is based on racism (or she's batsh*t crazy, switching a protein prep kit rather than admit a setback) and yet Wallace can walk past a couple with children and remark to himself: "their parents bring up the rear, an attractive middle-aged man - Wallace has seen him on the app, he thinks - and a woman with a tight, mean face, dark hair, green eyes, lots of freckles, skin like an aging banana peel"
but ultimately it was the sex descriptions that left me cold: especially the (let's face it) rape scene near the end that was bewildering, disturbing, and somehow part of the plot's climax. the sex starts as a brutal assault which mimics Wallace's childhood sexual abuse, switches to a passive assault where Wallace essentially pretend to be a willing partner, and then moves to an actual fight with biting and punching. and then there isn't a resolution. nothing. which is also part of the plot's climax: as opposed to Miller, Wallace sees no point in talking about terrible things that happen to him because it doesn't change the fact that they happened.
and that encapsulates the novel. horrible things happen. and there's no point in going further than that. who wants to spend 300+ pages in that?
first off, the grad student aspect had lots of potential - it IS an isolated, privileged life where the money comes from grants, adolescence gets extended, and it's natural you might ponder the point of life as you watch your old cohort moving on to the next stages of their career. but the author only addresses that through a sidebar discussion with Vincent, a longterm boyfriend of one of the grad students. when the main character toys with the idea of leaving grad school it's framed as a calamity, as if an education is only of value if you finish with a PhD, as if he'd slide right back to Alabama with no prospects for his future
and there is no context as to why Wallace's faculty advisor has turned on him, no scenes of their interactions before the combative rival grad student, the one who accuses him of misogyny, arrives in his second year. this rival grad student has an oversized dislike for Wallace that the reader has to assume is based on racism (or she's batsh*t crazy, switching a protein prep kit rather than admit a setback) and yet Wallace can walk past a couple with children and remark to himself: "their parents bring up the rear, an attractive middle-aged man - Wallace has seen him on the app, he thinks - and a woman with a tight, mean face, dark hair, green eyes, lots of freckles, skin like an aging banana peel"
but ultimately it was the sex descriptions that left me cold: especially the (let's face it) rape scene near the end that was bewildering, disturbing, and somehow part of the plot's climax. the sex starts as a brutal assault which mimics Wallace's childhood sexual abuse, switches to a passive assault where Wallace essentially pretend to be a willing partner, and then moves to an actual fight with biting and punching. and then there isn't a resolution. nothing. which is also part of the plot's climax: as opposed to Miller, Wallace sees no point in talking about terrible things that happen to him because it doesn't change the fact that they happened.
and that encapsulates the novel. horrible things happen. and there's no point in going further than that. who wants to spend 300+ pages in that?
chinchirah's review against another edition
3.0
"The past is not a receding horizon. Rather, it advances one moment at a time, marching steadily forward until it has claimed everything and we become again who we were; we become ghosts when the past catches us. I can't live as long as my past does. It's one or the other."
3.5 Stars
Real Life follows the protagonist Wallace, a gay Black man from Alabama who moves to the Midwest to pursue his postgrad studies in biochemistry and his (predominantly white) peers during a summer weekend. Throughout the book, the reader learns more about Wallace's traumatic past and what compelled him to move away, as well as his inner thoughts as he interacts and responds to the events that occur within just a few days.
I don't like pitting two books against each other but this book did feel very A Little Life-esque (a book I loved), though perhaps milder and less emotionally taxing on the reader. Brandon Taylor's prose is concise but still manages to be well-written. Really one of my only qualms with this book was the ending, it could've definitely been more impactful and maybe even solidified this as a 4★ read for me.
P.S. I wish I could give Brigit a hug IRL :(
CWs: child sexual assault/abuse, sexual violence, use of racist and homophobic slurs
3.5 Stars
Real Life follows the protagonist Wallace, a gay Black man from Alabama who moves to the Midwest to pursue his postgrad studies in biochemistry and his (predominantly white) peers during a summer weekend. Throughout the book, the reader learns more about Wallace's traumatic past and what compelled him to move away, as well as his inner thoughts as he interacts and responds to the events that occur within just a few days.
I don't like pitting two books against each other but this book did feel very A Little Life-esque (a book I loved), though perhaps milder and less emotionally taxing on the reader. Brandon Taylor's prose is concise but still manages to be well-written. Really one of my only qualms with this book was the ending, it could've definitely been more impactful and maybe even solidified this as a 4★ read for me.
P.S. I wish I could give Brigit a hug IRL :(
CWs: child sexual assault/abuse, sexual violence, use of racist and homophobic slurs
zeinm1980's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
bookmeagoodread's review against another edition
4.0
This book had me all in my feelings. There were moments of brutal heart break for Wallace’s past and his current floundering and general discomfort at his awkwardness in relationship to his “friends.” I’m withholding 1 star only because the end felt strange to me.
mywayorthehemingway's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Rape, Violence, Racism, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Vomit, Physical abuse, and Pedophilia
merrilywereadalong777's review against another edition
5.0
oh MAN this book...where to begin?
I feel so sad putting this one down. Saying good bye to Wallace. although some of his choices at the end I found really frustrating. But even with some of my frustrations I realize were exactly what Taylor had set up for me to be frustrated by. I get the comparisons to A Little Life, especially as the book goes along and the relationship(s) that unfold...but unlike a little life, I totally bought and accepted why this character is the way he is. He felt uncomfortably and painfully real to me in a way that Jude from a Little Life never did.
It's been a long LONG time since I've felt so unbelievably enraged on behalf of a character. And I certainly haven't despised or loathed a character as much as I have like a HANDFUL of characters in this book **cough cough**Roman/Dana/Simone*** who are evil on a level that really just shook me to a core that I wasn't expecting. Like all amazing books this started in one place and really surprised me where it went. It's not that I found the ending unsatisfying (although I did) but I just found it just so....sad. I was so angry he never spoke up but also understood why he couldn't. The depressed indifference (especially in one during their grad school years) everything just dead on. it's a f***ing sad book. But the writing is mesmerizing (I should add that there are also passages that are just screamingly funny but like the funniest comedy, it clearly comes from a..just bleak BLEAK place of depression). I really am struggling to find the right words to sum up how I feel about this book. It will stay with me for a long time. I will most definitely be reading anything and everything Taylor puts out now.
I feel so sad putting this one down. Saying good bye to Wallace. although some of his choices at the end I found really frustrating. But even with some of my frustrations I realize were exactly what Taylor had set up for me to be frustrated by. I get the comparisons to A Little Life, especially as the book goes along and the relationship(s) that unfold...but unlike a little life, I totally bought and accepted why this character is the way he is. He felt uncomfortably and painfully real to me in a way that Jude from a Little Life never did.
It's been a long LONG time since I've felt so unbelievably enraged on behalf of a character. And I certainly haven't despised or loathed a character as much as I have like a HANDFUL of characters in this book **cough cough**Roman/Dana/Simone*** who are evil on a level that really just shook me to a core that I wasn't expecting. Like all amazing books this started in one place and really surprised me where it went. It's not that I found the ending unsatisfying (although I did) but I just found it just so....sad. I was so angry he never spoke up but also understood why he couldn't. The depressed indifference (especially in one during their grad school years) everything just dead on. it's a f***ing sad book. But the writing is mesmerizing (I should add that there are also passages that are just screamingly funny but like the funniest comedy, it clearly comes from a..just bleak BLEAK place of depression). I really am struggling to find the right words to sum up how I feel about this book. It will stay with me for a long time. I will most definitely be reading anything and everything Taylor puts out now.
jessgock's review against another edition
3.0
Mixed feelings about this one. The writing is really good, if too wordy sometimes. I wasn't excited to find out this is yet another novel set in academia, but then the story pulled me in, and then it pushed me out again.
The book is about Wallace, a gay Black man from Alabama, who moves to an unnamed Midwestern city for graduate school. He hopes to start life over again - escape from the traumas of his childhood and make new friends. Instead, he finds himself in a sea of white people, hovering at the edges of a group of friends, never willing to open up enough or spend enough time with them to move past "friendly" to "friends." He throws himself into work in his lab. Then, suddenly, he finds out an attraction he's had to one of the people in his circle is mutual, and he starts accepting a few of the group's invitations to parties and brunches. The book takes place over a single weekend as he finds himself beginning to spend more time with this group.
One thing this book does really, really well is show what it's like to live surrounded by constant microagressions, how it eats away at you, makes you doubt yourself, and makes you wonder whether there's anyone you can trust. Wallace tries to keep his head down, but occasionally he explodes, in ways that always come back to haunt him as all the white people around him tell him to relax, that he's reading too much into things, that no one here is really being racist toward him. Or, if the racism was too overt to deny, they apologize to him later, privately, for not speaking up in the moment, but no one around him ever learns or changes - they just offer apologies after the fact.
There are rape scenes in this book, both in Wallace's past and in his present, and all the sex in the book is violent. I'm tired of so many stories where a gay person's backstory and life are filled with trauma and misery. All the couples in the book seem unhappy too, like there's just no joy to be found anywhere for anyone here.
Most of the time I found Wallace really relatable and sympathetic, though the scenes where he blew up always seemed too huge and out of character. I was also frustrated with the disdainful way he talked about people not in academia, which also seemed out of character for him.
The book ends abruptly - the last chapter, instead of bringing any kind of ending, goes back in time to Wallace's initial trip from Alabama to the university. I was left with absolutely no sense of what was going to happen next for Wallace. Overall, I found this novel intriguing but unsatisfying.
The book is about Wallace, a gay Black man from Alabama, who moves to an unnamed Midwestern city for graduate school. He hopes to start life over again - escape from the traumas of his childhood and make new friends. Instead, he finds himself in a sea of white people, hovering at the edges of a group of friends, never willing to open up enough or spend enough time with them to move past "friendly" to "friends." He throws himself into work in his lab. Then, suddenly, he finds out an attraction he's had to one of the people in his circle is mutual, and he starts accepting a few of the group's invitations to parties and brunches. The book takes place over a single weekend as he finds himself beginning to spend more time with this group.
One thing this book does really, really well is show what it's like to live surrounded by constant microagressions, how it eats away at you, makes you doubt yourself, and makes you wonder whether there's anyone you can trust. Wallace tries to keep his head down, but occasionally he explodes, in ways that always come back to haunt him as all the white people around him tell him to relax, that he's reading too much into things, that no one here is really being racist toward him. Or, if the racism was too overt to deny, they apologize to him later, privately, for not speaking up in the moment, but no one around him ever learns or changes - they just offer apologies after the fact.
There are rape scenes in this book, both in Wallace's past and in his present, and all the sex in the book is violent. I'm tired of so many stories where a gay person's backstory and life are filled with trauma and misery. All the couples in the book seem unhappy too, like there's just no joy to be found anywhere for anyone here.
Most of the time I found Wallace really relatable and sympathetic, though the scenes where he blew up always seemed too huge and out of character. I was also frustrated with the disdainful way he talked about people not in academia, which also seemed out of character for him.
The book ends abruptly - the last chapter, instead of bringing any kind of ending, goes back in time to Wallace's initial trip from Alabama to the university. I was left with absolutely no sense of what was going to happen next for Wallace. Overall, I found this novel intriguing but unsatisfying.