Book 67 - Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Reading date - February 2021

I took a bit of a break after my last book, by break I mean a few days.  I just got bored with reading, reading, reading all the time so I broke my time up by watching TV and taking massive baths..on one occasion I nearly drowned because I fell asleep.  I have also been catching up on more vintage Crimewatch but it's heading towards the 2000s now and I remember most of them.  I am also trying to limit my screentime because my eyes are feeling a bit goggly so I'm back in podcast land.

This book was another severe disappointment.  This is the second book that has been shortlisted for an award which has disappointed me so badly so from now on, I am going back to my old ways of choosing books and that is choosing whatever grabs my attention and not what everyone else is saying is amazing.  This is about the fourth time I have been burnt this year and it's only bloody Feb.  A part of me thought maybe I didn't like it because I'm feeling a bit bleh with this whole lockdown thing but that's not the case because I am currently reading a book I like.

This book was also mentioned on the Sky Arts Book Club so I thought it must be a good read.

I have hardly ever been so bored by a book.  It is the story which takes place over the weekend in the life of a gay black man who is at college with friends who he does not like, some of them do not like him and he also has someone in his class who does not like him.  So basically, it's a book about an unlikeable man with unlikeable friends and nobody likes anyone, despite most of them being in relationships.

The fact that this book takes place over a weekend (Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday) is baffling to me when this book is described as a college experience.  It's not an experience.  It is a snapshot.  Now, we have been locked down in the UK for so long that I can't tell if these people in the book have very active social lives or the author is dramatic about how much they get up to.  I think it is a bit of a mixture of both as at one point, the author says that the chem students spend ages in the lab, like until 2 am every single weekday... and then I am meant to believe that some would then also spend what scant spare time they have back in the lab? Nah, mate.

The book begins on Friday night where the black man meets his white friends.  First, he laments how awful these people are and how he doesn't want to really meet them but by the time they see him, it's too late.  The boy's dad died a few weeks ago but this detail doesn't really develop anywhere, you get piecemeal updates about his home life and how he was abused as a kid by a man his dad let in the house.  A lot of people have said that A Little Life is misery porn and although I'm loathe to use to term, I feel that this book deserves it far more than A Little Life.  A Little Life has pockets (actually large swathes) of happiness in it, this book has no happiness, it is all very depressing. All through the book he is hyper-aware of him being black.  I am also an ethnic person so I'm aware that I am brown but I don't feel that I stick out like a sore thumb in most of my day to day life.

I won't spoil the story for you except to say that one boy who hates him (within the friend group) ends up sleeping with him on Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday with a look to taking this long term..even though the boy has said he is straight.  This makes no sense to me and I can't see this happening in real life.  You're telling me that a straight boy would go from taking the piss out of you for a racial stereotype (think Rosa Parks) to being a bisexual boy who all of a sudden finds you intensely attractive all because you cane to his aid in a very minor way? Very unbelievable.  There is loads of violence and unnecessary rudeness in this book and the black guy just sits there taking it.  I have never met anyone who would just sit there taking it, he lashes out at the wrong thing and when people are being rude to HIM, he just sits and smiles.

I feel this book is very overambitious, it cannot possibly be a college experience when it is spread over three days.  I mean what happens when he ditches the toxic friend group?  There are enough characters to make your head spin, all with banal and boring interchangeable names (think those annoying American names which could easily be surnames).  Nearly all the couples are gay with one straight couple thrown into the mix.  This makes a nice break from the norm.  The descriptions are heavy handed yet never ever let you properly imagine what any place is truly like.  I feel that this book tries to mix everything and fails, it mixes college, being a black gay man in a circle of white friends, extremely over the top chemical/science-y chat, not liking people at work, not liking your mates, being abused as a child, being abused as an adult, straight men experimenting, friendship dynamics and what we are left with is a confusing mishmash of stuff.  If the author had streamlined what the book was about, it would have been a far better read. 

There are graphic details of rape, sex and violence and I feel that a lot of it was not really needed.  None of the characters are likeable, including the protagonist who really needs to grow a spine and sort himself out so he can answer back to people when they challenge him and call him both racist and homophobic names.

None of his friends are really nice to him and in real life, I can't imagine anyone would stick around with such toxic friends, I would rather be alone than have my mental health constantly fucked with the way his friends fuck with his.

I feel that a lot of books these days are proper OTT in their descriptions of disgusting things like rape and harm which is something I don't think anyone really wants to read about..and because it has never been written about, people think it's so cutting edge and that therefore deserving of awards.

Lame, lame, lame.