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A review by obscuredbyclouds
The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
3.0
This book surprised me, mostly in a bad way. I'm a big fan of Willy Vlautin's novels. I love his unflinching look at the underbelly of the USA. His protagonists always have been dealt a hard hand, and his writing style is clear, sparse and concise. To a degree, all of this is true for "The Night Always Comes" too, but something's missing.
1) The main character stays paper thin. I never really felt like I understood her or her motivations. Who is she besides someone with mental health issues and a tragic past? She wants to buy a house and help her disables brother.... and? What kind of person is she? What does she like? She is way too trusting, and not very smart. She makes the same mistake over and over again. I literally found myself cursing at her out loud at some point.
2) The tone and pace was uneven. 2/3 of the novel are so action-filled that it's like reading a thriller. The melancholic and slower pace I normally appreciate about Vlautin only appear in the rest of the novel. All the parts about the main character's earlier life, especially the love story, were so much better than the rest. I wanted to read a whole novel about that tragic love story; I found it so moving.
3) Vlautin is great at showing-not-telling when it comes to descriptions, but the dialogue is a little overloaded at times. These really long expository rants took me out of the story a lot.
4) This is a thesis novel about the plight of the poor and working class people and about gentrification. I agree with the thesis, I just don't like thesis novels when the characterisation suffers. At points, this almost veered a little into the 'misery porn' category for me. There's approx. one person in this novel who is good to the main character and doesn't completely fuck her over.
This is a good but very uneven novel. I liked it. At some points it moved me. But I wanted it to be better. I wanted to believe the people in the novel existed, and I didn't.
1) The main character stays paper thin. I never really felt like I understood her or her motivations. Who is she besides someone with mental health issues and a tragic past? She wants to buy a house and help her disables brother.... and? What kind of person is she? What does she like? She is way too trusting, and not very smart. She makes the same mistake over and over again. I literally found myself cursing at her out loud at some point.
2) The tone and pace was uneven. 2/3 of the novel are so action-filled that it's like reading a thriller. The melancholic and slower pace I normally appreciate about Vlautin only appear in the rest of the novel. All the parts about the main character's earlier life, especially the love story, were so much better than the rest. I wanted to read a whole novel about that tragic love story; I found it so moving.
3) Vlautin is great at showing-not-telling when it comes to descriptions, but the dialogue is a little overloaded at times. These really long expository rants took me out of the story a lot.
4) This is a thesis novel about the plight of the poor and working class people and about gentrification. I agree with the thesis, I just don't like thesis novels when the characterisation suffers. At points, this almost veered a little into the 'misery porn' category for me. There's approx. one person in this novel who is good to the main character and doesn't completely fuck her over.
This is a good but very uneven novel. I liked it. At some points it moved me. But I wanted it to be better. I wanted to believe the people in the novel existed, and I didn't.