I waited a long time for Real Life by Brandon Taylor to come from the library and was so excited to read it. It won the 2020 Booker Prize. But, to me, it was a disappointment. “Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.” (Amazon) Overall, I just didn’t enjoy the characters very much and I felt like it tried too hard.