The novel takes place over the course of a weekend, which alternates between gatherings with his (White) friends, moments of solitude, a session in his lab, and a number of steamy encounters with his friend Miller. The narrative starts shortly after one of Wallace's experiments (involving the culturing of nematodes) has gone wrong, and he suspects one of his fellow students of having sabotaged it. He is the first Black student admitted to the program in decades and is considering dropping out. Wallace is a gay, Black student from a small town in Alabama who is enrolled in a PhD program in biochemistry at a predominantly White university in a Midwestern town. On NPR, it was announced as a ' coming of age' novel.

Arrowsmith and Eren Orbey refer to Real Life as a ' campus novel', albeit with a twist and of 'a new kind', respectively. That, says Arrowsmith, is one rationale for the book's title, but another is that 'real life' points at the supposed detachment of academic life from the world outside the university, the world of 'getting a real job, real health insurance, taxes'. With a boilerplate disclaimer about reading too literally, the parallels between Taylor's life and Wallace's experiences seem clear'. Charles Arrowsmith, writing for The Washington Post, said that 'Like many first novels, Real Life appears to hew to its author's own experience-Taylor has written in numerous personal essays about being gay and Southern, his abusive upbringing and his experiences of sexual violence. Real Life is Taylor's first novel he is a 'scientist turned novelist' who did his undergraduate studies at Auburn University Montgomery. Described as a campus novel and a coming-of-age novel, the partly autobiographical book tells of the experiences of a gay, Black doctoral student in a predominantly White, Midwestern PhD program.

Real Life is the 2020 debut novel of Alabama-born American writer Brandon Taylor.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor