Reviews

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

Only show reviews with written explanations

joensign's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

bookofcinz's review

Go to review page

dark tense slow-paced

2.0

I think if you have an interest in MFA programmes and academia you will absolutely enjoy this book. However, it fell really flat for me. We are introdued to many characters and I could barely remember who is who, I kept having to go back and forth trying to piece things together.

Honestly, this book did not work for me at all. It was trying to do and be too much.

kdowli01's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

isabelrstev's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

4.5

baileyvk's review

Go to review page

challenging reflective sad

3.5

scellis's review

Go to review page

2.0

Taylor obviously has a lot of ideas about what Art is, or rather what is should be. The Late Americans feels like half-understood literary criticism packaged into forced prose; like if Harold Bloom wrote Gossip Girl.

There is something undeniably compelling about Taylor’s character’s which kept me on the line most of the way through. But I couldn’t make it to the end.

The book feels like an intelligentsia’s burn book where Taylor lands blows against his real life undergraduate peers. It’s hyperbole of the literature classroom’s sensitivity and the volitive nature of socio-political issues is cheap and spoils what could have been a good book.

Also the sex in this book is disgusting and a disservice to the people this author is attempting to uplift/represent.

Potential, but spoiled.