The Night Always Comes

A Novel

By: Willy Vlautin

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

“Willy Vlautin is not known for happy endings, but there’s something here that defies the downward pull. In the end, Lynette is pure life force: fierce and canny and blazing through a city that no longer has space for her, and it’s all Portland’s loss.” (Portland Monthly Magazine)

Award-winning author Willy Vlautin explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family.

Barely 30, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she’s been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland’s housing prices have nearly quadrupled in 15 years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it’s their last best chance to own their own home - and obtain the security they’ve never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they’re set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.

Set over two days and two nights, The Night Always Comes follows Lynette’s frantic search - an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers, those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered, Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious, frenzied spiral. In trying to save her family’s future, she is plunged into the darkness of her past, and forced to confront the reality of her life.

A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise?

©2021 Willy Vlautin (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Willy knows tragedy

I went back and forth from sympathy to anger with the main character. I take that as a sign of well developed character.

A compelling take on working class struggles

A harrowing, compelling story that at times ventures into the barely believable, but that ultimately doesn’t detract from a gripping listen.

As a resident of Portland for the last 15 years, I appreciated Vlautin’s descriptions of the less glitzy parts of town and could easily picture exactly where Lynnette was traveling.

Christine Lakin was born in Dallas, and her performance contains slightly more twang than is heard in most native Oregonians - even working class ones. There were some flubs on local place names she’d have no way of knowing, but nothing egregious. The voice she uses for male characters worked well.

Wow, a knockout!

I’ve listened to all of this author’s available books, and have enjoyed all of them. There seems to be a hidden nugget of redemption in each; either self-redemption, or the understanding and (possibly) forgiveness of others. Beneath the plots, his books are about people and The Night Always Comes is no exception. This book can be hard to listen to at times, but jeez...these characters are so incredibly real that it’s impossible to look away.
The narrator, Christine Lakin, is so very good.
If you’re looking for a light feel-good read, this might not be for you. But if you want to step into the lives of these characters, root for them (and often against them), and wake up thinking about their strife and tenacity and hopes and victories, well, you’ve found your book!

Quiet desperation

Sad story that felt real. ( well, maybe some of the escapes from serious harm were a little too convenient…) This might be called depressing by some, but I’m reminded of the famous Thoreau quote: The mass of men lead lives of quite desperation. I rather wish the ending had more resolution, but it also has a glimmer of hope for Lynette. Excellent narration, excellent prose, wonderful book about the human condition.

Great read, so much emotional and life over 5 days. Loved it.

Great read, so much emotion and life over five days. Vlautin paints a picture of modern Portland that will bring tears to your eyes.

Must listen

Loved it. You will too. Totally worth the credit. I’ll keep an eye out for more books by this author. Narrator was perfect too!

Here’s that small bit of hope

Again. The emotion I have to get through to find the little bit of hope, that connection to the characters that have suffered in so many ways. Getting through to something that is just slightly better in the end. I love the sorrow that is punctuated by the resilience of the main character. She is so strong and Willy is brave enough to let her face that trauma and find some justice in the messiness. Loved it.

So. Many. Monologues.

So much story building through monologues. Exhausting at times. Not bad, though. Narrator is great.

Eh

Soap opera sort of depressing. Very much like where a part of USA is headed.