Podcast
Fresh Air
Maureen Corrigan highlighted the book as a National Book Award winner that centered on a poignant death‑bed conversation between two gay men, exploring sex, family ostracism, Puerto Rican identity and film. She praised its layered, experimental form—mixing photographs, scripts and scholarly‑sounding footnotes—while still functioning as a traditional novel, and noted its significance as Torres's second work following his acclaimed debut. The discussion consistently presented it as a top recommendation for listeners interested in queer history and innovative storytelling.
Episode: Best Of: Colman Domingo On 'Rustin' / Cord Jeffers...
The book was noted for winning the National Book Award for fiction and for its dialogue between two gay men about family, identity and film.
Justin Torres' Blackouts won this year's National Book Award for fiction; at its center is an extended deathbed conversation between two gay men about sex, family ostracism, Puerto Rican identity and the films they love.
Episode: Breaking The Menstruation Taboo
Torres's National Book Awardwinning novel centers on a dying conversation between two gay men, addressing identity, family, and queer history. It earned a top recommendation.
Justin Torres' Blackouts won this year's National Book Award for Fiction. At its center is an extended deathbed conversation between two gay men about sex, family ostracism, Puerto Rican identity, and the films they love.
Episode: Best Of: Jada Pinkett Smith / Keegan-Michael Key
Torres's second novel was praised for its layered storytelling that weaves photographs, film scripts and scholarlysounding endnotes into a haunting narrative about queer history and memory.
Justin Torres' Blackouts, which has been shortlisted for the National Book Award, struck me as a traditional novel wearing the costume of experimental fiction.
Blame the Halloween season, but Blackouts is festooned in dizzying layers of tales within tales, photographs, film scripts, scholarlysounding endnotes, and fictionalized accounts of reallife figures, yet at its core it is a classic conceit dramatized by the likes of Tolstoy and Cather.
Over a decade has passed since Torres made his mark with his semiautobiographical debut novel called We the Animals, which was hailed as an instant queer classic and made into a film.
Episode: Lawrence Wright On 'Mr. Texas'
Torres's second novel, a layered experimental work, follows a dying man who entrusts a younger friend with a secretive literary project, blending fiction and archival material.
Justin Torres' longawaited second novel, Blackouts, has been shortlisted for the National Book Award.
Blackouts strikes me as a traditional novel wearing the costume of experimental fiction.