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The Late Americans

By: Brandon Taylor
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Selected as a Best Book of 2023 by the Guardian, Irish Times, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire and i-D

The highly-anticipated new novel by the Booker-shortlisted author Brandon Taylor. An exploration of sex, love, identity and politics

In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a social circle of lovers and friends navigate tangled webs of connection as they try to figure out what they want, and who they are. At the centre of the group are three dancers: Ivan, tall and stoic, who is leaving ballet for a career in finance; Fatima, whose work ethic earns her both admiration and enmity; and Noah, who 'didn't seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.'

As they test their own desires in a series of relationships - and in other, clandestine ways - they are buffeted by other volatile figures in town, from an unruly, vulnerable young poet to a local landlord nursing a lifetime of resentment. Finally, after a series of violent encounters, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives, and waves of long-buried heartache resolve into moments of unexpected tenderness.

Filled with scenes of aching intimacy, The Late Americans is Brandon Taylor's richest and most involving work of fiction to date, confirming his position as one of our most perceptive chroniclers of loneliness and desire in contemporary life.

©2023 Brandon Taylor (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Taylor is a sharp chronicler of the body. In The Late Americans, the body is an instrument and an archive, vulnerable to the complicated violence of pleasure and work. (Raven Leilani, author of Luster)
I loved The Late Americans and its funny, merciless, brilliant portrayal of the beauty and pointlessness of art, and the absurdity and horror - and occasional transcendence - of being a person. Magnificent. (Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Rodham)
Brandon Taylor has both a classic sensibility, expansive and elegant, and a razor-sharp ability to speak to the contemporary moment. The Late Americans is a full expression of his singular talent. (Emma Cline, author of The Girls)

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Not the great American novel

Taylor can clearly write, but this is a mishmash of underdeveloped ideas about relationships, art and money that never fully cohere. It feels like a book that has been rushed out to fulfil a contractual obligation, rather than out of a clear vision.

This isn't really a novel, more a series of interludes, loosely connected by featuring some of the same characters. However it doesn't work as the themes aren't strong enough to bind them together, and most of the characters are too underdrawn, dull or downright whiny to hold your interest.

Only the Seamus sections have any life or spark. The other characters are too similar and hard to differentiate from one another. The few women characters he includes might as well be men!

The poetry seminars have a dry sense of humour which suggest that a future, possibly less rushed novel, might be worth a look.

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