Real Life

I read Brandon Taylor's debut novel called Real Life. This story told by Wallace. Wallace is in graduate school studying biochemistry. He works in a lab at a college in the Midwest. Wallace came from Alabama and that is only one of the reasons he does not fit in with the other grad students. He is black and he is queer. Life is hard for Wallace. He does have some friends but he puts them off by not sharing details about himself. Wallace is busy pretending everything is okay and his friends see through that facade. At one point in the story Wallace is thinking about breathing as a violent act - how the air gets pulled into our lungs forcing the bronchi to open. As I read that I thought only a depressed person would think of breathing as a violent act. Wallace is depressed but he is not the only grad student in the group to be depressed. Although difficult to read at times because of the pain and sadness, I'm glad I got to know Wallace and the other grad students.