The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin | Book Review

“When you look at a person’s life it’s easy to pass judgement if you don’t know them. The more you know the more you understand. Sometimes you find out what a person has gone through and you’re surprised they are even upright. Other times it’s the opposite, some people just seem to invite or continuously stumble into hard times. I always try to show both sides in my songs and novels. I’ve always been interested in how people can get beat up day after day and still get by, often times with great dignity. The struggle to overcome one’s own ditches has always interested me.”  – an interview with Willy Vlautin 

“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.” 

The Night Always Comes by the American writer, Willy Vlautin is a ruminative poignant and compelling exploration of poverty, economic inequality, human misery and despair caused by daily financial anxieties, the meaning of the American Dream, how people from so-called working class exist rather than live in the 21st century, and the impact of poverty on one’s emotional and physical health where no matter what one does they will never get ahead in life.

The novel portrays a very gloomy picture of life, its limitations as well as the challenges imposed by the outside world due to lack of financial security. This is a profoundly moving novel imbued with noir elements.

Vlautin crafted a tale of high emotional intensity, and heightened sensitivity holding a magnifying glass over the working – poor class where people constantly live on the edge, often in isolation caused by financial instability. Earning a minimum wage, often a below living wage affects how people socialise with others and whether they can socialise at all, how they maintain relationships and connect with others.  

Written in evocative prose, The Night Always Comes captures the plight of a 30-year-old woman, Lynette living in Portland who is constantly exhausted by work and pushed to the edge of her own limits, both emotional and physical while desperately trying to secure a stable future for herself, her mother and her developmentally disabled brother. Over the years Lynette has been working multiple low paid jobs often waking up at 3.30 in the morning to start her day at the bakery, going to school in between her morning shift and her evening shift bartending, taking care of her disabled brother, just to save enough money for the deposit to buy the rundown house they are currently renting and where the landlord “hadn’t raised the rent in eleven years on the understanding that they wouldn’t call him for repairs.”  They “decided not to tell him [the landlord] about anything wrong cause [they] were scared he’d start raising the rent like everyone else.” Lynette is working herself to the bone just to be able to live where she has always lived, as people like her are being priced out of their neighbourhoods.

We follow Lynette over the period of two days and two nights while she frantically tries to get money needed for the deposit as just one week prior to signing the papers her mother back tracks from the deal to buy the house pushing Lynette once again to her limits to find money in order to have some modicum of stability. She and her mother have been in agreement over the deposit and taking out a mortgage for three years prior to her mother changing her mind at the last minute.

Doreen is Lynette’s mother, a 57-year-old hard working woman with her own struggles. She always wears clothes purchased in the second-hand shops, she could never afford to buy new clothes. When she backs out of the plan of buying the house with Lynette, she does it because she does not want to be tied to the mortgage that will not likely  be paid off during her lifetime. She decides to spend saved money on a new car. She wants something for herself, just once in life. Doreen has always had to scrap by. Her ex-husband never paid bills or supported her financially or care for her disabled son.  Despite being treated badly and unfairly by her ex-husband she still had to call him and beg for money to help with children but to no result. She only has an experience as a waitress – on a daily basis she puts “one foot in front of the other” but existing this way “it’s hard to do”. 

Lynette understands her mother’s sacrifices for her and her disabled brother. She desperately needs her mother’s support but then Doreen goes through her own struggle and towards the end of the novel she says to Lynette that she is tired of living with her, being around her due to Lynette’s mental health challenges. It does not mean she does not love her daughter but she has her own limits too and she is exhausted also by her own struggles, children, failed relationships – her life is not only about sacrifice. To Doreen her daughter deserves a chance at life but on her own – Lynette must forge her own path alone. But then Doreen also deserves a chance at life. To Lynette her mother’s words and actions feel like a betrayal to a certain extent. Lynette does not understand why her mother led her to believe for three years that she is interested in buying the house sharing the financial burden with her while Lynette worked herself to the bone to save money. Lynette does not understand why her mother changed her mind only one week prior to signing the house papers which increased Lynette’s mental health struggles further. As readers we can see how both Lynette and Doreen are right and wrong at the same time. Doreen’s feelings for her daughter are best expressed in her own words: 

“I’d give my life to save you until the day I keel over. That’s the truth. But really that does not mean I have to like you or that we have to get along or that you even have to like me.”

Vlautin offers nuanced observations on adult child-parent relationships where he reminds us that most of us regardless of our age and our social position have dreams, too, including our parents. 

“I’m fifty-seven years old and I still buy my clothes at Goodwill. It’s a little late for me to care about building a future…You don’t know what it’s like. Other women my age are going on vacations with their grandkids, they’re talking about retirement plans and investments. Me, I haven’t taken a vacation since the time we went to San Francisco, and that was over fifteen years ago…I’ll never retire and that’s just a goddam fact…. why do I have to sacrifice more than I already have? Why do I have to have a debt hanging over me for the rest of my life? Haven’t I given enough? I mean why can’t I have something nice for a change? Just for me, just once?  … I’m a middle aged, overweight fatso loser… I’m old, and no one wants to hire a worn out middle aged fatso. Most of the time now when my alarm goes off I just want to give up…. I’m not trying to whine or complain. I’m just telling you how it is … I just don’t understand for the life of me where so many people get their money. And what am I supposed to do? Go to college?… I’m old. So I guess I’m what you’d call a loser… I’m a loser. But knowing it doesn’t change anything.”

Doreen does not perceive buying the rundown overpriced house with the loan as any form of stability. To her it’s like being “handcuffed to a loan” on “a house that’s been like a prison since Kenny [Lynette’s brother] was born, a house that Lynette’s father abandoned [them] in…” 

While trying to secure money Lynette gets involved with a range of equally desperate people from all walks of life. Some are at their limits, some have crossed the line and passed into the world of criminality in order to have enough money just to survive and pay their basic bills. Lynette is repeatedly being taken advantage of by greedy people even by those whom she considers a friend. During this frantic search for money, we learn more about Lynette’s life and her past.

We witness the horrific impact that economic inequality, jobs that don’t pay a living wage have on people’s physical and emotional health as well as their social relationships with others. We see Lynette’s history of depression and mental health challenges, constant exhaustion caused by work and by simply existing. Lynette making bad decisions, and breakdown in her relationships have always been somehow related to money or rather lack of it. 

“He looked at Lynette. ‘I see you because I don’t want to think about any of that. I’m sorry but I don’t want to know if you have a brother or live with your mother or what kind of car you drive or if you go to college. That’s not saying I don’t like you – I do. You’re fun. But I pay you so we don’t have to talk about the other shit. Because I’m tired of the other shit.’

The novel leaves us with a rather grim realisation that despite working so hard for many years Lynette will not be able to have her own home, or any idea of security. She is too exhausted to go to school to gain additional skills and even additional education is rarely a guarantee of better opportunities that might make difference to her social status, especially with her mental health being affected by the conditions of her life. Support for her emotional wel-being also heavily depends on her finances.

Throughout the novel we feel Lynette’s exhaustion, and how little she asks for — that her debts are paid off, that people stop taking advantage of her, that they keep their promises and that her working multiple jobs and her strong work ethics would mean something, lead to a better and stable future for herself, her brother and her mother. These are simple things – but they appear unattainable for Lynette and people living in similar circumstances to hers. 

“Why does it matter to feel bad about anything? Isn’t that the American dream? F*ck one whoever is in your way and get what you want….The people who are remembered are the ones taking. … they don’t care who they hurt doing it, they really don’t…”

Ultimately Vlautin offers a nuanced meditation on finding one’s place in the world and how much wrongdoing and abuse we are ready to accept in exchange for a few moments of support from others.

“[Lynette] decided to never say no to him, that she would give anything and everything to him and by doing so she would be more of him and less of her. She would try to erase herself completely.”

This is a portrayal of deeply traumatised individuals trying to make the ends meet. It’s also a nuanced tale of what it means to have a loved ones with severe disabilities who require a constant care like in case of Lynette’s brother. It’s not depicted as burden but rather it sheds light on reality of being a caregiver while facing economic struggles – a theme that’s rarely depicted in literature in a humane realistic manner. 

“I’ve been working two jobs. I’ve done a lot of good things. I’ve gotten us a decent washer and dryer. I got us a new hot water heater… I’m more than pulling my weight with Kenny. I’m contributing and you know I am. So please, I’m begging you with everything I have, just stop bringing up the past. Stop punishing me. You can’t change it, I can’t change it. But we can have a good future. We can buy this house. That’s something that’ll change our lives. It will give us confidence.”

Even though The Night Always Comes is a devastating novel on many levels, Vlautin also offers a message of hope. There is some deeper meaning in kindness and sheer human decency reflected in the words of Lynette’s 68 year old colleague, Shirley with whom she works at the bar:

 “The thing is, you never give up and you’ve got a good heart, a damaged heart, but a good heart, and you want to do good. Most people don’t care about doing good. Most people just push you out of the way and grab what they want.”

The Night Will Always Come is one of my favourite reads. Vlautin weaved a beautiful tale of deep emotional intensity. As someone who in my youth worked multiple low paid jobs and attending school, depiction of Lynette’s mental and physical exhaustion seems to me as one of the most accurate portrayals of someone who is working – poor, someone who despite strong work ethics and sacrifices is unable to better themselves. It’s a devastating novel but definitely much needed especially in England these days. Vlautin’s universalism is unmatched. I must say that I really want to read more books by Willy Vlautin. He is an exceptional writer with so much compassion in his prose. I highly recommend this book.