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The Late Americans

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The Late Americans
First edition cover
AuthorBrandon Taylor
Cover artistLogan T. Sibrel (art)
Stephanie Ross (design)
LanguageEnglish
GenreCampus novel
Set inIowa City
PublisherRiverhead Books
Publication date
May 23, 2023
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages320
ISBN978-0-593-33233-7 (First edition hardcover)
OCLC1317343139
813/.6
LC ClassPS3620.A93534 L38 2023

The Late Americans is a 2023 novel by American writer Brandon Taylor. The novel followed Taylor's critically acclaimed 2020 debut Real Life, as well as his 2021 short story collection Filthy Animals.

Background

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Taylor was inspired to write The Late Americans while contending with pressure to commodify his experiences as a queer Black southerner in his art.[1][2] The novel began as a satirical short story revolving around Seamus, a character disdainful of the prominent role identity politics play in his peers' poetry, who would eventually become the center of the novel's first chapter.[3] Though he wrote and sold the first draft of the book in 2019, Taylor nearly abandoned the project in 2021 due to feeling stuck with his characterization, and even went so far as to take up film photography as a replacement for writing.[4] However, after a conversation with actor Lee Pace, whom he met through mutual friend Jeremy O. Harris, Taylor began to approach the novel through the lens of whether or not he cared about the character, giving Seamus a job and deepening the novel's focus on class.[3][5][6]

Taylor felt compelled to write a novel strongly focused on character, partially out of frustration with contemporary fiction, which he feels often abandons memorable characterization in favor of "vibes".[7] Additionally, Taylor felt obligated to write a novel that was more overtly class-conscious than Real Life, since both books are campus novels directly inspired by his experiences at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He did this both to prevent his focus from becoming too narrow, and to reiterate just how much of his own college experience was informed by precarity, which he felt many critics overlooked in their coverage of his debut.[2] In crafting the structure of the novel, Taylor took inspiration from Ann Patchett's Commonwealth, Karl Ove Knausgård's The Morning Star, and Mavis Gallant's short fiction.[8] He has also compared the novel's view of a "symphony of lives" to the works of Émile Zola.[1]

Summary

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The novel consists of a series of interlinked character studies that follow a group of college students living in Iowa City as they navigate class, relationships, career decisions, and artistic purpose. Each chapter focuses on the perspective of one specific character, though some characters make repeat appearances.

Title

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The title of The Late Americans was inspired by a reflection Taylor had while pursuing his Master of Fine Arts degree. "It all felt very rigged and cheap," he explained to The Guardian. "I remember walking home one day, thinking: ‘It’s like we’re all in a museum exhibit called 'The Late Americans.'"[1] Taylor himself has likened the title to that of the 1877 novel The American by Henry James, whom he has cited as one of his favorite authors.[6] According to Taylor, the word "late" can refer to being dead, being tardy, or living under the current stage of late capitalism.[4]

Artwork

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The novel's cover features a cropped version of the Logan T. Sibrel painting Chin Smooch. Taylor explained his choice of the painting to Oprah Daily, stating, "For me, it captures a real sense of intimacy and warmth," and added that the image "could be a kiss, it could be CPR. It could be this man is sleeping. I love that there can be all these different interpretations of what appears to be a familiar tender scene. That feels very much in step with the novel to me."[9]

Reception

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According to review aggregator Book Marks, which collected 31 reviews, The Late Americans garnered "positive" reception from critics.[10] Writing for NPR, Thúy Đinh lauded the book, saying: "Taylor deftly explores the myth of youth's unbound possibilities as it plays out in the face of constraints of time, space, class and wealth disparities by vividly illustrating the intersecting lives of University of Iowa students pursuing master degrees, in artistic as well as STEM-related fields, with the people living in this college town."[11] For The Washington Post, Mark Athitakis praised Taylor's take on the campus novel, writing that he "observes this milieu with fresh eyes" and possesses a "bone-deep" empathy for his characters.[12] In a more mixed review for Vox, Constance Grady wrote that "as we delve into the mind of each character in turn, it starts to become disconcertingly difficult to tell one from the other".[13] Additionally, in an outright negative review for the Star Tribune, Claude Peck criticized the novel for "drift[ing] almost plotlessly" among its collection of characters.[14]

Many critics, regardless of their opinion on the novel's quality as a whole, praised Taylor's depiction of the character Seamus and the questions he poses. In The New York Times, Alexandra Jacobs referred to him as "the pick of the litter",[15] and in Harper's Magazine, author Claire Messud described him as "hold[ing] the novel’s roiling, slow ground bass".[16] Despite his less congratulatory view of the book, Peck wrote: "The big ideas raised by Seamus—Is his condemnation of today's woke academic culture valid? Is he blinded by his whiteness? His sexism? What is the correct role of the contemporary artist?—resonate most strongly in the scattershot mix."[14]

Shortly after its release, The Late Americans became the subject of controversy when Laura Miller, writing for Slate, panned it on the grounds that Taylor's prose was not as engaging as his pithier social media presence.[17] Miller also criticized the novel for "readily fulfill[ing] the stereotype of 'workshop fiction'—that is, character and relationship portraits that naturally assume an open-ended short-story form".[18] In an episode of the Vulture podcast Into It, Taylor responded to Miller's review by saying: "It feels like what happens when we mistake our preoccupations for a valid critical lens."[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Needham, Alex (June 3, 2023). "Brandon Taylor: 'Writing is the most fun I'm capable of having'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  2. ^ a b Allfree, Claire (June 25, 2023). "Brandon Taylor: 'So much modern fiction is deeply boring'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Westenfeld, Adrienne (May 23, 2023). "Brandon Taylor is Reinventing the Campus Novel". Esquire. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Polk, Shelbi (May 23, 2023). "'The Late Americans' Is Brandon Taylor's Kaleidoscopic Look at Life in a Midwest City". Shondaland. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  5. ^ Taylor, Brandon; Dalva, Adam (June 5, 2023). "Brandon Taylor: "The story can't be so loyal to one character that it betrays another"". Guernica. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Barnes & Noble (May 23, 2023), #PouredOver: Brandon Taylor on The Late Americans, retrieved October 19, 2023
  7. ^ "Brandon Taylor on art, loving across class and why he writes sex scenes". NPR. May 30, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  8. ^ Okundaye, Jason (June 27, 2023). "Author Brandon Taylor on why he left science, sex scenes and literary superstardom". Evening Standard. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  9. ^ Haber, Leigh (October 14, 2022). "'Filthy Animals' Author Brandon Taylor Has a New Novel, and Oprah Daily Has the Cover Reveal". Oprah Daily. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  10. ^ "Book Marks reviews of The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor". Book Marks. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  11. ^ Đinh, Thúy (June 5, 2023). "'The Late Americans' is not just a campus novel". NPR. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  12. ^ Athitakis, Mark (May 22, 2023). "Review | 'The Late Americans' is a fresh reinvention of the campus novel". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  13. ^ Grady, Constance (May 23, 2023). "In Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans, art students scramble for money and sex". Vox. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Peck, Claude (May 19, 2023). "Review: Friends and frenemies pursue life, love and MFAs at a Midwestern university". Star Tribune. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  15. ^ Jacobs, Alexandra (May 21, 2023). "For 'The Late Americans,' Grad School Life Equals Envy, Sex and Ennui". The New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  16. ^ Messud, Claire (May 2023). "New Books". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  17. ^ Esters, Katherine (May 25, 2023). "A Review of "The Late Americans" is Sending Book Twitter Into A Tailspin". The Messenger. Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  18. ^ Miller, Laura (May 22, 2023). "Real Life". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  19. ^ Sanders, Sam (August 29, 2023). "Brandon Taylor Wants to Bring Gatekeeping Back to Book Criticism". Vulture. Retrieved October 19, 2023.