We get to know a lot about the topography of Portland Oregon, and gig posters for small-time local bands, but very little about Lynette’s logical processes. Perhaps she has none. Obsessed with a desire to move up the social ladder to middle-class home ownership, she is committed to hard work… along with prostitution, grand theft, burglary, drug-dealing, and GBH. Lynette apparently never thinks about consequences but merely reacts impulsively to anything beyond her obsession. For a lot of years the only way I used to know how to get control of my life was to get mad. It was the only way I knew how to stand up for myself.’ I did listen to the audio which is narrated by Christine Lakin and man was she good. She was the perfect person to be the voice of Lynette and she definitely did a fantastic job of getting the emotion of the story across. This is straight-up literary fiction to me, and there is no mystery, but it did feel very suspenseful since you never know what will happen next. Even though it is basically one bad thing after another and it feels like Lynette will never catch a break, the end does leave the reader feeling hopeful. It left me wishing there was more to the story since the whole thing was so sad, but I am glad it left us with some hope, or I really would have been depressed! I would recommend The Night Always Comes if you are a fan of gritty, emotional reads and don't mind if they have a gloomy/ominous feeling throughout.

Between looking after her brother, working two low-paid jobs, and trying to take part-time college classes, Lynette is dangerously tired. Every penny she's earned for years, she's put into savings, trying to scrape together enough to take out a mortgage on the house she rents with her mother. Finally becoming a homeowner in their rapidly gentrifying Portland neighbourhood could offer Lynette the kind of freedoms she's never had. But, when the plan is derailed, Lynette must embark on a desperate odyssey of hope and anguish. The Night Always Comes” is a taut Modern American Noir Fiction set in the modern American West. The author is Willie Vlautin. This is the second novel of his that I have read, the first being “Northline”. Both of these novels are excellent but dark. The novel under review can be a tough emotional experience. I really like this novel and the author, but this is not a light fun read. It is the kind of novel of which, I hesitate to use the word “enjoy”. It is excellent but intense, at times, very intense. I'm starting to think that some people are just born to sink. Born to fail. And I'm beginning to realize that I'm one of those people, and you have no idea what that's like. How truly awful it is to know that about yourself." it's a tautly coiled plot, and there's something almost noir about it as lynette spends the night-into-early-morning driven by her mounting desperation into a series of increasingly dangerous situations as she calls in her chits and faces the demons of her past, burning bridges all the way down. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.a lot of it, particularly the scenes between lynette and her mother, reads like a play, their dialogue unfurling in long alternating speeches dredging up all the old grievances of the past; fraught and emotional but also expositionally resonant. this would be a powerhouse drama if anyone ever took it upon themselves to stage this. The album features Vlautin on guitar and vocals, Amy Boone (vocals), Cory Gray on piano and trumpets, Sean Oldham on drums, and Freddy Trujillo on bass. It is produced by John Morgan Askew and features 10 new Delines songs, in addition to a cover of Spiritualized’s 1997 song "Broken Heart". it's a modest dream, but to her it represents stability, which she has had precious little of in her thirty years. A book trailer which shows some of the locations mentioned in The Night Always Comes can be seen here.

Lynette has made some serious mistakes in her life, and she has issues that she may or may not be able to control, but she is working as hard as she possibly can. And a large part of that is her love of her brother. She wants to buy the house, not just for herself and her mother, but for Kenny, who needs that stability a lot more than she or her mother does. And when kindness does shine through, from an unexpected source, it is the relief we have been pining for, a beacon in the gloom, a desperately needed recognition in a world of people turning away. But the problem remains. What does gentrification look like for people who are being pushed out, whether they are good people or not? ( For my wife and me, it was being driven out of Brooklyn for affordable housing 125 miles away. No criminality involved, at least none that I will admit to.) Vlautin is a master at showing, taking us through the events of a harrowing few days in Lynette’s life. What he chooses to show, and how clearly he shows it, gives us a very vibrant, if dark, picture of her life, and the limitations and challenges she faces from the outside world. One running comment is on the mass of construction underway. This place sold its parking lot for an apartment development. Another condo-building is going up here, more over there. Formerly recognizable neighborhoods have been transformed into yuppie-vortex. In his sixth novel, The Night Always Comes, Vlautin explores the idea of the American dream and the impacts of gentrification, greed, and opportunism on ordinary, working class lives. This scorching, noir-ish tale follows a young woman, Lynette, over the course of two days and nights as she endeavors to secure the money needed to buy the house she rents with her mother and developmentally disabled brother.His sixth novel to date, published in 2021, The Night Always Comes is arguably his most affecting, and without doubt will leave indelible marks. Is there an intense focus on a character with mental health issues who honestly can't always control herself and makes some highly questionable moves? Yes. (And don't expect her to explain to you why she made them.) To celebrate the publication of Willy Vlautin’s new novel The Night Always Comes (3rd June), Faber has announced a bonus CD for Rough Trade customers. Between looking after her brother, working two low-paid jobs, and trying to take part-time college classes, Lynette is dangerously tired. Every penny she’s earned for years, she’s put into savings, trying to scrape together enough to take out a mortgage on the house she rents with her mother. Finally becoming a homeowner in their rapidly gentrifying Portland neighbourhood could offer Lynette the kind of freedoms she’s never had. But, when the plan is derailed, Lynette must embark on a desperate odyssey of hope and anguish.