I think I am too old for this type of novel. It is about the last year of college for a group of dancers, poets, musicians who will never be at the top of their chosen life and so have to plan for second best options related to existing with money. Brandon Taylor writes well but I disliked the story and didn't feel enriched by reading it.

Brandon Taylor has such a talent for writing these stunning single sentences packed full of descriptive imagery. Like his debut novel, this novel is enjoyable to read and engages the reader thought out.

This is a novel that encourages serious thinking about modern social issues. Based in Iowa City, it charts the relationships of a group of teenagers finding their way in the world. Some are heterosexual, some gay. Some are white, others black. They all find different ways of dealing with their sexuality, colour and careers. There is a lot of very detailed, explicit descriptions of sexual intercourse. It is important that these issues are faced up to and dealt with. It is an important book, well written and thought provoking.

I enjoyed Brandon Taylor's previous works and his second novel doesn't really stray far from his previous efforts. I like that. An author working within their niche. The Late Americans follows several characters, predominantly gay male graduate students. Following one chapter about a couple, one of whom had a Russian name, with another chapter about a couple, one of whom had a different Russian name, became slightly confusing. I will be sure to read Garshin though.

Taylor delves into the inner lives of each of the characters and writes their traits empathetically, giving great humanity to them. There were moments when I found the third person narration a little jarring--perhaps inconsistent--though. There seemed to be some pages where there was a lot of swearing in the narration. I'm by no means a prude, I just didn't really see what it added.

While reading this I realised, perhaps for the first time, that writing in great detail about mundane things like prepping veg can have an almost calming effect and brings an interesting dynamic to the prose.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more by the same author.

The Late Americans is Brandon Taylor's second novel following his previous Real Life, and they share many similar themes. Where Real Life focussed on one man's experience, Wallace, at university, The Late Americans focusses on many (perhaps too many). Taylor moves, chapter by chapter, through a friend group, into acquaintances, etc., moving around to different students all going through a lot of the same sort of thing (struggles with their art (be it writing, dance, painting), abuse, sexuality). Most of the characters in the novel are gay as Wallace was before them. My main complaint with the novel as a whole is that a lot of the characters felt almost interchangeable. There were so many friends and most of them felt fairly similar to one another. Change out their art or the form of their abuse and they were mostly indistinguishable. Maybe there's a comment on reality there, but it made for repetitive reading.

Another is that every conversation was exhausting to read. I don't know if this is truly indicative of American friendships but they are very honest and very cruel to one another, constantly. Almost every conversation in the book runs for a few lines before one of them says something spiky and someone else says "Fuck you". Even in the university workshop scenes, with a professor there with them, they are making abuse jokes and saying "Fuck you" to each other. None of the characters were overly likeable, which is not an issue I have on the whole. I found their loneliness and their struggles to communicate (however frustrating this also was) relatable. Eventually though, nearing the 300 pages of the novel, you can see where every conversation is going, that rarely they are nice to each other, and hell, even when they are nice to each other, someone still gets the bright idea to say "Fuck you". Finally, in their large friendship, almost every guy had slept with every other guy. To the point where they are dating one but then kissing another, or having sex with two of them... because I found the characters fairly indistinguishable, I struggled to follow who was actually dating who and therefore who was sleeping with who. Noah, for example, I think sleeps with almost everyone else. Again, maybe that's true to life.

When I read Real Life I commented on the writing being quite MA/MFA. I thought mostly the same here. At times you could feel Taylor stretching and trying too hard so the sentences came off poorly. Not to say he's a bad writer, there were some good lines, but generally I feel his writing is quite forced, pushing for the poetic. I don't know how it is one can read and sense that. Perhaps it's a lack of confidence you can feel through the words. I'm not sure. Some of his sentence choices were still very MA/MFA, repeated words for effect, single line sentences for extra dramatic vigour, rhetoric questions ending paragraphs that felt a little corny. By far the most repetitive strain of conversation was to do with money, and Taylor throws around the word piety a lot. Almost every character complains about another's piety at some point. Middle-class. Trust-fund. There's a lot of venomous money talk. Again, perhaps it's bigger in America. In England, no one talks about money, especially not their parents' money with friends.

So, if you like the sound of reading about a group of friends navigating current America, sex, abuse, etc., then this is your book. There are some fairly graphic sex scenes, lots of "Fuck you"s... It's OK. I think there are better contemporary books I get more out of. Last year I read Rooney's newest, Beautiful World, Where Are You and was surprised by how good it is. I'd rather just read that again. I can't decide if this was better than Real Life though, I think it is. Thank you to Random House for the advance copy.

A coming of age novel set in America where the main characters are a group of young people who are at the end of their university careers finishing off their Masters level qualifications prior to moving on with their lives . This is a time rich in potential anxieties and the author chooses to focus on a group of mai only young men who have decided to study poetry or dance . some are being successful in their chosen career paths and others are clearly struggling or were never going to do well as they were so poorly suited .
For the most part the main characters are openly Gay and the novels setting in contemporary time allows the author to look at how their lives are different from those of young men perhaps coming out when this was more difficult for example in the 80s when AIDS wss universally fatal . The characters seem rather relaxed about the dangers to themselves and others both physically from infection but also the potential for violence in casual hookups . There are several s very well written ex scenes in the book which are quite explicit
I felt that the novel showed similarities with the wring of Hanana Yamagihara ( A little life ) and Donna Tatt ( A secret History )
Ultimately not a lot happens in the story but I liked the way. that this echoed the rather unorganised lives of the young people themselves some of whom were rather aimless and drifting
I read an early copy of this book on Netgalley Ukl the. book os published in the uk on 23rd June 2023 by Vintage books

Extremely well-written, but didn't really capture my interest. Very long chapters which were in essence interconnected stories from different viewpoints, felt more like character studies than a plot-driven novel.

This is one of those books that I'd have been happy to go on for another few hundred pages, because the writing is such a pleasure to read. Having said so, the characters themselves are not exactly a pleasure to read, and there is a certain something to how the female characters in particular are written that I found hard to stomach, particularly in the writing seminar scenes. But for writing alone, this is pure joy.

I love Taylor's academic settings and the ambivalence his characters feel about their places in academia. I really enjoyed the sprawling nature of the connections between the characters, despite how hard it was to keep track of them all! In hindsight, perhaps I yearn for a slightly tighter focus, especially given the 'gay-scene' feel of the book - do we really need a chapter from every single one of the beautiful conflicted boys who have or have not had sex with each other, or want to, or might or might not end up together? I respect the literary project of putting that scene to paper, especially in such a beautiful way, but perhaps as a novel this would benefit from either a narrower focus (ie. just that scene), or some more time given to the 'peripheral' characters.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Did not like this at all. I felt it was trying too hard - too much language and too many characters, most of whom were annoying.

At the beginning of the book I thought the prose was to illustrate the pretentiousness of the characters…but it was not to be.

A couple of paragraphs that illustrate the writing:

“If you just said enough names, people assumed you knew what you were talking about and tended to attribute the vagueness of the reference to their own ignorance. .

“You betcha, pal,” Seamus said. He showed his teeth. Oliver just shook his head. But Seamus couldn’t stop. He tasted the glut of their attention. The sweet iron tang of it. He was thirsty for more. The looks on their faces, the anger, the annoyance. So sure of them‐ selves. Of their positions.

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC

i genuinely think that brandon taylor is the best person whose writing i first discovered from twitter, the first being bolu babalola. incisive and brilliant

This novel follows a group of students in Iowa City and some peripheral people to their lives as they try to understand themselves and life.

The chapters moved around the characters, giving new perspectives, which worked although I’ve seen it done badly before. The characters were all well-formed and distinct, even if a bit irritating with their cliches and posturing; how can a 20-year-old be so jaded?

I thought it had an interesting take on privilege, class and race divisions in America/our world:

“The whole world was just a series of nested shell games involving dwindling sums of money, everyone a little worse off than the person next to them, until you got to the very bottom, where some people had nothing at all.”

Even when seemingly describing a rotten plum or diseased trees.

The writing was mostly beautiful but sometimes, I think purposefully and unnecessarily, pretentious.

This book made me think. I thought about how you don’t really know what’s going on with another person. It also disturbed me as I found myself wanting to hear the perspective of a perpetrator of abuse.

I loved the wiring style but did find chapters a bit too long in places. It was a good read but not a great one for me.

Somehow the blurb of The Late Americans attracted me immensely, but while reading, that attraction subsided. Instead, I became restless and sometimes wanted a chapter to end, but then it kept going on and on and on.

First of all, the writing is gorgeous. If I would only rate the writing, this would have easily been a five-star rating. But beautiful writing alone is not enough for me. I couldn’t connect to all those characters as much as I wanted to, and some characters I just didn’t care enough about. Add those long chapters (nine, each from a different point of view) and the interlinked stories, and I got lost somehow.

So, this book is not for me, but it could easily be one for you, especially if you like interlinked stories, fabulous writing, and complex characters.

Thank you, Carmella Lowkis, from Penguin Random House UK, for providing me with the ARC. I’m so sorry I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to.

Actual rating 2.5 stars, rounded up because of the writing.

No surprise, I liked this a lot. Late Americans has aspects of the things I enjoyed about Taylor’s previous books - the academic setting and group of friends of like Real Life and the interwoven short stories of Filthy Animals, and the melancholy of both.

In Late Americans it feels like Taylor elaborates on what he did in Filthy Animals, each character is somehow connected to another (or more) and the stories flow in and out of each other. There were some characters that I enjoyed more than others and some whose story I wanted to explore more.

But overall, as before I love Taylor’s writing style - it’s well thought out, without being dense or overwrought. I think it’ll take a lot for me not to be excited by something he writes.

I loved Real Life, and it was one of my favorite books of the year then. This one is about the life of a bunch of young people in Iowa, their friendship and life and what a story! It's an incredible one that will stay with you for sometime. I am liking Brandon Taylor more and more (love his twitter).

Reading like a series of intricately linked short stories, The Late Americans charts the tensions running through the lives of a group of post-grad students in their final year, all facing an uncertain future when they leave their Iowan campus. Over the course of the year, the students’ lives will collide, some leaving a trace, some not, culminating in a farewell weekend in the country for six of them.

There’s a great deal going on in Brandon Taylor’s portrayal of this diverse set of young Americans as they prepare to launch themselves into life outside academia. Each of its nine chapters is narrated from the perspective of a different character, some barely connected to the main group, yet it’s remarkably cohesive. The tone is sometimes acerbic – student identity politics are neatly skewered via Seamus who’s a bit too smartass for his own good - sometimes quietly thoughtful. Characters are complex, fleshed out with backstories that occasionally surprise. It’s a very accomplished, polished piece of work, cerebral enough to leave readers with much to think about, but sufficiently immersive to feel an involvement with its characters. I talked about this novel a lot when I read it and thought about it a great deal more. The ending left me hoping that Taylor might revisit this disparate group. I’d like to know how they’re getting along in a few years.

The Late Americans is a novel that weaves together the lives of a range of young people in Iowa, exploring relationships, sex, class, race, and searching for your future. A group of dancers are looking to see what they do when their college course ends, various friends test their dynamics with sex and arguments, and, eventually, some of them go to a cabin for a last vacation before they leave Iowa.

Each section of the book tells a chunk of the story through a focus on a particular character or two, mostly within a particular friend group though some characters are much more on the periphery than others, and you continue to see characters and their narratives even once their particular chapter is over. I was expecting this structure to be more confusing than it actually was: it isn't a style of novel I tend to enjoy, but in this case I felt I could easily start to pick up how everyone wove together after the first few chapters and the perspective changes meant you go to see various viewpoints and senses of character dynamics. The writing has a distinctive style, occasionally purposefully at arms' length, and it may take a moment to get used to, but then it does bring an interesting vibe to the novel, a sense of zooming in and out, seeing into the lives of complex characters who often make mistakes and put pressure on their relationships.

Even if you're not usually a fan of novels that move between a range of characters in a broader group, The Late Americans may be worth reading (also, I found Taylor's Real Life just fine and preferred this one). It depicts a messy group of people who have different takes on the world, but are all looking for their future, and does create something coherent out of the cacophony.

I have not been able to finish this book which is a shame. Some of it I have enjoyed very much, the writing is intelligent, I like the ideas that are being explored through the relationships between the characters. The characters themselves are strong and well rounded, a somewhat diverse collection who find themselves linked sometimes by circumstance, sometimes through choice while finding their passages through life. I liked seeing how their backgrounds influence their opinions subconsciously and how they deal with that when challenged and the way that poetry, art and music are used to raise contentious issues. What I found difficult to read were the frequent and explicit descriptions of male sexual encounters. I have not read this author before, my attraction to the book was through hearing plaudits about his previous work so I was perhaps not prepared for this aspect of his writing. It is possible that I will return to finish the book at a later date, it is certainly powerful and memorable.

Thank you for the opportunity.