Real Life - Brandon Taylor

Compiling my thoughts about Real Life, which let me start by saying, I absolutely loved, was more difficult than I expected it to be. Firstly, I’m a white reviewer, so I must acknowledge the privileged viewpoint from which I experienced Wallace’s journey. Secondly, Brandon Taylor himself said that he didn’t write this book for the “white gaze.” This book was not intended for me. I presume it was written, primarily, for queer black people. It’s incredible to see the black queer people I follow on social media express their joy at seeing themselves represented in this story, and, especially as written by one of their own.

As a gay person, Real Life inspired me to think about all the brilliant works of fiction written by gay authors, or featuring complex gay characters, that I’ve been lucky enough to read in recent years: Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life; Peter Kispert’s I Know You Know Who I Am; John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies.; Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, to name but a few. It makes my heart warm to see Brandon Taylor’s novel join these incredible texts. I never read characters who were like me when I was growing up. So, it gives me hope for the future that young queer kids will have this novel and many more stories in which to see themselves and be emboldened by.

I took my time reading Real Life. The prose was so beautifully considered and elegant. I wanted to spend as much time in each scene to process Wallace’s point of view. Each scene containing another hurdle he must overcome, simply because he exists as who he is.

I was most struck by an incident around a dinner table with friends, which arrives at the midpoint (no spoilers here) and sees Wallace become the victim of a rather calculated verbal attack. The attack falls on deaf ears in his group of white friends, who make awkward efforts to continue the conversation. Understandably angry, Wallace is momentarily unable to maintain his usual level of self-control and lashes out at another of his friends. The response couldn’t be more different. That’s all I’ll say, as I don’t want to reveal too much, but it’s one of many examples of how Wallace, as a black person, is treated differently because of his race. It’s subtle but still insidious, and racist.

Wallace’s familial history, and defining life experience is - if you’ve read Sapphire’s Push, or Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, or Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple - one you may be familiar with. Abuse is a common theme in all these stories, and Real Life is no exception. The harm Wallace suffered shapes his friendships, his relationships with romantic and sexual partners, and his career as a biochemist, due to his struggle with self-worth.

We meet Miller, a straight jock type, in an early scene, and an unlikely relationship with Wallace forms. It’s through the lens of this relationship that we explore the lasting effects of the abuse Wallace suffered at the hands of a family friend, and ultimately - as they failed to adequately protect him, his parents.

I can’t praise Taylor’s prose enough. It is both elegant and incredibly powerful; considered and meticulously crafted. His vivid descriptions don’t enforce themselves on the reader in an overbearing way, but open each scene by layering rich detail upon rich detail, accented with subtle sensory elements-I felt, and I saw, and I heard every scene.

Real Life is a novel that I will come back to time-and-time again, I’m sure. It’s a novel that I will recommend as a powerful piece of literature that expands the mind and breeds empathy in its readers. Brandon Taylor - while not writing this novel for me - inadvertently pulled me into his story for 300+ pages in a way that will shape how I think about the experience of others who have faced more profound challenges than me for a long time to come.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

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