The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
I was so excited to receive a proof of Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans that I read and reviewed it pretty much immediately, but I'm posting my review again to celebrate the fact that it is now out in the UK. Enjoy!
"Iowa was a kind of cultural winter - they had all come to this speck of a city in the middle of a middle state in order to study art, to hone themselves, and their ideas like perfect, terrifying weapons, and in the monastic kind of deprivation they found here, they turned to one another."
The Late Americans moves between a loose circle of friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Iowa City, as the academic year turns full circle, and the future beckons. While the book is narrated in the third person, each chapter focuses on particular characters. This allows us to see both sides of an argument, and different sides to a character. It also means that we come to recognise characters who crop up in multiple chapters, and that we get to learn more about characters who we have already met in passing. Although I had a little difficulty keeping track of some of the characters, especially the ones with shared interests and friendship circles, I really loved the way the paths of these characters kept overlapping. To finish one chapter and see that the next started with a character I wanted to know more about made this book very difficult to put down. I also loved the way the shifting perspectives undermined the certainty of some of the characters' opinions.
There is so much going on in the lives of these characters, but I particularly liked the way Taylor writes about relationships (the phone calls between Fyodor and his mother, the aspect to his father that perplexes Noah), money (the way the other dance students see Fatima's work as a barista, Timo's realisation that what feels secure to him is not what feels secure to everyone), and poetry (Seamus' musings on his poetry seminar, Oliver's comments on Seamus' poem). The Late Americans is just the most beautifully written book, and one that I can't stop thinking about. I'm already looking forward to reading it again.
"Iowa was a kind of cultural winter - they had all come to this speck of a city in the middle of a middle state in order to study art, to hone themselves, and their ideas like perfect, terrifying weapons, and in the monastic kind of deprivation they found here, they turned to one another."
The Late Americans moves between a loose circle of friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Iowa City, as the academic year turns full circle, and the future beckons. While the book is narrated in the third person, each chapter focuses on particular characters. This allows us to see both sides of an argument, and different sides to a character. It also means that we come to recognise characters who crop up in multiple chapters, and that we get to learn more about characters who we have already met in passing. Although I had a little difficulty keeping track of some of the characters, especially the ones with shared interests and friendship circles, I really loved the way the paths of these characters kept overlapping. To finish one chapter and see that the next started with a character I wanted to know more about made this book very difficult to put down. I also loved the way the shifting perspectives undermined the certainty of some of the characters' opinions.
There is so much going on in the lives of these characters, but I particularly liked the way Taylor writes about relationships (the phone calls between Fyodor and his mother, the aspect to his father that perplexes Noah), money (the way the other dance students see Fatima's work as a barista, Timo's realisation that what feels secure to him is not what feels secure to everyone), and poetry (Seamus' musings on his poetry seminar, Oliver's comments on Seamus' poem). The Late Americans is just the most beautifully written book, and one that I can't stop thinking about. I'm already looking forward to reading it again.
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