The Late Americans

A Novel

By: Brandon Taylor

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE, ELLE, OPRAH DAILY, THE WASHINGTON POST, BUZZFEED AND VULTURE

“Erudite, intimate, hilarious, poignant . . . A gorgeously written novel of youth’s promise, of the quest to find one’s tribe and one’s calling.” —Leigh Haber, Oprah Daily

The Booker Prize finalist and widely acclaimed author of Real Life and Filthy Animals returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women at a crossroads

In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.” These four are buffeted by a cast of artists, landlords, meatpacking workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and food-service kitchens of the city, sometimes to violent and electrifying consequence. Finally, as each prepares for an uncertain future, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered.

A novel of friendship and chosen family, The Late Americans asks fresh questions about love and sex, ambition and precarity, and about how human beings can bruise one another while trying to find themselves. It is Brandon Taylor’s richest and most involving work of fiction to date, confirming his position as one of our most perceptive chroniclers of contemporary life.

©2023 Brandon Taylor (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The Late Americans is Brandon Taylor’s best book so far. . . . For all their disagreements and misunderstandings and incompatibilities, [his characters are] all attempting to make peace with the cosmic bêtise of existence, to figure out how to live without compromising everything they value. It’s beautiful and wrenching to watch them try.” —Charles Arrowsmith, Boston Globe

“Brandon Taylor's third book is the most dazzling example of his sharp pen and keen observations of human nature yet. . . . Taylor develops his characters so precisely, they feel like close friends: recognizable, sometimes infuriating, and always worth following to the book's last page.” —Harper's Bazaar

“One of the best contemporary writers on young queer creatives, Taylor continues the theme with this offering about a group of Iowa City friends. . . . Over a year of creative and personal revolution, they go through partnerships, daddy issues, and complicated friendships — all simultaneously chaotic, messy, and loving.” —Rolling Stone

The beginning was promising...

The explorations of class feelings and cringe were my favorite parts.

Overall, this is a resentful, argumentative book full of resentful, argumentative characters.

I was left wondering what the point of all this was or if we were supposed to have some takeaway.

Disjointed depressing stories of disaffected 20 something’s

This well reviewed novel is both tedious and boring. Nothing happens. Everyone whines about how tough their life is compared to their “friends”/college mates. It was a depressing listen that left me empty and disinterested.

A bad boring pretentious novel

How this novel got so well reviewed I don’t know except that it must have positioned itself so precisely at the intersection of race, class, and sex with an artsy veneer and a spicy dash of anti-wokeness that everyone in the literary world was afraid to criticize it.

Truly a bad novel

If you enjoy graphic descriptions of gay sex, THE LATE AMERICANS has something for you. It has little or nothing else to recommend it.

Characters Lacked Depth, No Plot

I was looking forward to this book, but it is not good. This is a scattered and unorganized piece of writing. I did not care about the characters because all I got to see were the surface levels of who they were and their shallow interactions with others. The sex scenes were overwritten and were mostly gratuitous. The scenes did nothing to propel the plot or provide a deeper understanding of the characters. The characters themselves were neither likable enough for me to cheer for them nor were they unlikable enough to be interesting.

The performance was good, but the material is bad. A disappointment after Taylor's previous novel.

Vivid and beautiful journey!

Beautiful journey into this group of friends and lovers. Life's complexities provide a wonderful ride of emotions and relatable happenings. Looking forward to more from the author.