Brandon Taylor As America's David Lodge?

The Guardian published a review of Brandon Taylor's latest novel under The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor review – a real university challenge. He’s gone to school in Wisconsin and Iowa, so he knows of the Midwest. But the following is what made me think of David Lodge:

Taylor’s next book, Filthy Animals, was a series of linked short stories again exploring class, sex and race in a campus setting but this time inhabiting three characters rather than one. His new book, dubbed “a symphony of a novel” (blurb-speak for “barely disguised story collection”), sticks with higher-ed sexual entanglements in the American midwest but further stretches his canvas to more than double the number of characters, with uncertain results.

I read David Lodge in prison, I really came to like David Lodge, and I mean here to make a huge compliment. In my mind, this means Barnes needs to be read.

This further reinforces my thinking:

Taylor’s next book, Filthy Animals, was a series of linked short storiesagain exploring class, sex and race in a campus setting but this time inhabiting three characters rather than one. His new book, dubbed “a symphony of a novel” (blurb-speak for “barely disguised story collection”), sticks with higher-ed sexual entanglements in the American midwest but further stretches his canvas to more than double the number of characters, with uncertain results.

Uh huh, this one sounds like fun.

sch 6/18