The two reconcile quickly though, and their connection grows as both prefer to seek the margins.

Lionel first becomes entangled with Charles after meeting at a party, where a distasteful jab from Charles ends up creating a scene. Christianity is invoked explicitly in a number of places throughout the book, most prominently in a story that has characters referencing the Lord before culminating in a Cain-esque attack. More than one character gets a paragraph describing their thirst after greedily downing a glass of water. Taylor’s motifs through the rest of the stories sit in a similar vein, with many dealing with complicated interpersonal relationships, sexuality and desire, as well as various outpourings of emotion, but all too often these feel more recycled than cohesive throughlines. This larger narrative follows Lionel, a suicide survivor, as he attempts to find a new place within regular life and academia, and balance the difficult relationship he strikes up with Charles and Sophie-two dancers in an open relationship. Unfortunately, despite offering a handful of scenes that sing, much of the collection languishes, too often missing the mark on the balance between subtlety and earnestness.įilthy Animals contains 11 stories, though from the first story on, every other story continues the same narrative thread, feeling as much like a novella punctuated by asides as a collection of isolated stories. Filthy Animals sees Taylor revisit many of the same themes that he first tackled in Real Life, with many characters being scientists or mathematicians, both since-reformed and unrepentant, as well as a wide variety of characters who struggle with how they fit into their relationships or sexuality. After bursting onto the literary scene with last year’s Real Life, Brandon Taylor is back with another book-this time a collection of stories called Filthy Animals.

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor