This past Saturday, my review of Willy Vlautin’s latest, The Night Always Comes, ran in the Winnipeg Free Press. I was excited to read the novel, as I am a big fan of Vlautin’s earlier work, and it did not disappoint.
While Vlautin’s Portland is resigned to its ongoing gentrification, Lynette has agency, which she makes full use of in pursuing her goal. The choices Lynette makes in The Night Always Comes lead her to reckon with her own morals, and put her safety at risk again and again.
I came across Vlautin by way of Patterson Hood, principal songwriter of the Drive-By Truckers. Vlautin’s earlier novels, Motel Life, Lean on Pete, and Northline, are masterclasses in heartbreak, while The Free is such a desperate portrait of working life in America that you can feel the exhaustion its characters struggle through in every line. Vlautin put out a novel in 2018, but I think between the renovations on our house & the birth of my daughter, it somehow slipped past me. I was pleased to snag Don’t Skip Out on Me from the library before this latest round of lockdown, so I look forward to digging into it soon.
A couple weeks back, Vlautin took part in a virtual conversation with novelist Megan Abbott that was put on by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. I zoomed in for the event, and the subsequent Q&A, both of which were very entertaining and revealing.
Check out the full review over here.