The Late Americans

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.

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).

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

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.

Brandon Taylor has done it again!!! I think The Late Americans is perhaps my favourite of his books yet! The interweaving stories of his characters, linked by their shared feelings of unimportance yet desperation to be noticed, considered, was just superb. A title I will definitely be returning to again and again.

Brandon Taylor is a brilliant writer. This novel is beautifully constructed, tackling, with engaging narrative, ideas about relationships and place, and relationships and intimacy in place. It's hypnotic writing, this. The characters unfold as complicated, as well as complex (the two things are entirely different, and it's *really* hard to convey that in writing.) More than that, there is an ingenuity to the writing that is admirable, a pace and tension that works incredibly well. Very highly recommended. My grateful thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

BRENDON TAYLOR – THE LATE AMERICANS *****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Late Americans is a tour de force. Extraordinary prose with very real characters at the heart of his story. The opening nearly put me off; I couldn’t get into it, so many words whose meanings I didn’t know (thank God for Kindle’s built-in dictionary!) and an intellectual discussion between several friends that I simply wasn’t into. But I’m glad I persevered, because the more I read, the more engrossed I became, this story of the entangled lives of a group of black and white, queer and straight young people.

It's not a plot-driven novel, all about characters and place, so I’m not going to precis the story. It is one of those unflashy books that beckons you in, then grabs you by the throat and won’t let up until the final page.