The Topeka School: A Novel

The author is the thinly disguised central character as are his parents. The richness of the Book I found were the voices of the characters as they narrate the various chapters . I read the First chapter and found it to be very funny and then I heard Ben read it at a forum and then recognized the poetry , he is a famous poet and was before he became a famous author. Adam is the "cool kid" and National champion in extemporaneous speaking and a champion debater . His criticism of the absurdity of a winning strategy in HS debate called" The spread" will be familiar to any lay judge who has listened to a HS debate and wondered what the hell was happening and why would anyone try to persuade another with an overwhelming volume of points delivered at the speed of the a drug commercial list of side effects . His interaction with his parents, both transplanted New Yorker's, and psychologists at the world famous Menninger Foundation . The descriptioons of characters from that psychiatric community is both entertaining and enlightening. His mother who had through her feminist psychology had aggravated some disturbed men who would call her and express their outrage and the way she managed their anger has an element of both pathos and humor . I found the most interesting part of the book to be a description of the character Darren who is at a minimum slow and the focus of adolescent humiliation while the peers appear to include him . His character morphs into a social outcast and he joins a local church devoted to the hatred of homosexuals . Adams great aunt who was a doctor before the Holocaust and now resides in a nursing home in a state of dementia is another interesting character as the staff permits her to live out her harmless fantasy. Adam as a father joining with his activist wife and the children in a protest and his interaction with authority is a also a good story . There are many entertaining stories many with much deeper meanings and Ben writes beautifully and so the words alone and the way they are put together is worth the read.

This book was certainly a challenging read. If you are looking for a quick, easy read, this is not that book (buy it anyway for when you are wanting something with more depth). This book seemed like it was one long run-on sentence and had a non-linear time line and switches between four interrelated characters; despite this or maybe in spite of this, this novel was a must-read in my opinion and tries to help make sense of the country we now find ourselves in. As I read this book, I have to admit that I wondered how much of it would make sense unless you grew up in Northeast Kansas during the 90s. Likewise, unless you were a Debater or Forensics "nerd" in high school, I wondered how much someone would understand the references to these activities that were discussed throughout the book. Like the author, I grew up in NE Kansas during the 90s (I am ever-so slightly older) and was a frequent visitor to Topeka, so a lot of references were familiar to me. (As a HS Forensics participant, and having had one child (so far) be a Debater, I was very familiar with the numerous Debate and Forensics references). Invariably, we saw protests from Fred Phelps' "church." Most of us, even my ultra-conservative mother, were appalled by the protests, but much like the book states, the objections to Fred Phelps had little to do with the demeaning of the LGBTQ community. While this book touched on a lot of issues, one of the most profound moments of this book for me revolved around the issue of Fred Phelps: Why were the citizens of Topeka (or anywhere) so offended by him when they agreed with him? (Please note: I do not agree with Fred Phelps or his ideologies.) I never imagined that I would receive parenting insight with this book, but as a mom to two boys, the issue of toxic masculinity is a recurrent concern and is something that weighs on my heart. I do not want my boys to think it is acceptable to treat girls/women as only sex objects (as was my experience growing up in the 90s and even still now, ugh!) nor in any way inferior, yet I do not want them to feel that they are somehow inferior or invalidated because they are male. And now, I feel compelled to address the, ahem, elephant in the room. This novel tried to provide a backstory for how Donald Trump happened. Yes, I still live in Kansas, but I can assure you there are cities/areas in this "red" state that are liberal (or purple), much like the family portrayed in this novel. (I would argue that we do not have "red" or "blue" states, we have concentrated areas in each state that lean politically one way and they are better defined by rural, urban, suburban.) The subject of Donald Trump and how anyone can support him is certainly a compelling psychological examination, no matter which side you are on. I think this book makes some interesting conclusions that show how some of this absurd current circumstance even became possible. Which brings it back to the conclusion about Fred Phelps: Why are they offended when they agree? Yikes. So, go find a quiet, comfy space, grab a cup of tea (or coffee), and allot yourself chunk of time to try to read this gem of a book in a single setting (or 2). It's well worth your time.

Lerner can move from a perfect four-sentence essaylet on the anomalous kid to an intricately choreographed kegger in a garage where that kid is struggling, as he is both let in and excluded. the Darren situation is SO complex and Lerner somehow conveys it. i doubt there are many writers who can do what Lerner does here!

Unlike many of the reviewers, I found the structure of The Topeka School intriguing, intricately patterned, true to life as lived and the way we remember things. I really enjoyed the connections and the way the parts became whole. Nevertheless, I have a few gripes: I do have a problem dealing with, as Lerner acknowledges, 'the unstable mixture of fact and fiction'. I am aware that this is being done a lot now and often makes for absorbing reading, however, it still seems a bit like cheating (using your own life and passing it off as fiction). I am aware that all fiction has to come from somewhere and that writers of traditional fiction also draw upon their own and others' experiences to make stuff up but don't we expect fiction to be more imagined than non-fiction? And, isn't that harder? And isn't it fairer for the reader to know this when they read a literary work? And, as much as I admire and really enjoy Lerner's writing and structure and originality, there lingers, for me beneath the surface, a discernible 'smarty-pants' undergraduate tone. And, more than a touch of self-indulgent whinging from a group of entitled, intellectually superior folk whose endless analysis of their personal problems at times tip into banality. Lerner's writing saves them.

Não foi com pouca ansiedade, nem receio que me aproximei de The Topeka School, terceiro romance de Ben Lerner – um dos meus autores contemporâneos favoritos. Mas surgiu uma sensação de alívio a cada página. O bom e velho Ben (nem tão velho assim) estava lá, mas não apenas o bom-e-velho Ben, há algo de novo, uma maturidade que se encaixa na evolução dos romances dele. Aquilo tudo de metaficçãosobreeumesmomasnãoexatamenteeudeverdade que irrita tanta gente não estava lá – quer dizer, extava mas de outro jeito. A narrativa se situa nos anos de 1990 uma década que até hoje nos influencia – não tanto quanto os anos de 1960, mas ainda assim paira sobre nós, essa década que acabou (junto com o século) em 11 de setembro de 2001. Topeka é a cidade onde Lerner nasceu e cresceu, e tal qual o protagonista, Adam Gordon (o mesmo de Leaving Atocha Station, cuja narrativa é posterior a aqui), participou de campeonatos de debates e foi campeão. O romance investiga uma masculinidade tóxica com honestidade – o pai do personagem, assim como o de Lerner trabalha com adolescentes problemáticos –, e, na medida em que o romance olha para o passado, podemos fazer um diagnóstico do presente. Aquela foi a década o último suspiro da opressão impune. O que não quer dizer que certas coisas foram superadas – mas elas não passam mais despercebidas, o que é já um começo para transformação. A questão central do autor em seus romances anteriores era de como a subjetividade se ligava à arte, e de como essa exprimia o indivíduo no mundo do capitalismo tardio. Isso está aqui, mas a forma como as personagens olham para o mundo, e este para elas é outra. Há outros dois narradores além de Adam: sua mãe e seu pai. E é impressionante como o autor é capaz de criar um trio com vozes distintas. A narradora, por sua vez, tem um papel de destaque, sendo quem é capaz de mais bem figurar a dinâmica do mundo onde vivem, seu lugar social permite isso. Sendo uma autora feminista, seu livro desperta as piores respostas dos homens. Ela recebe ligações anônimas que a chamam de destruidora de lares para baixo. E Jane é obrigada a desenvolver dispositivos para se proteger disso. É um pequeno elemento dentro da narrativa que ressoa grande, e diz muito sobre o estado das coisas. É o livro mais sofisticado de Lerner, no qual ele vai muito além do estado da arte, e leva sua prosa para outro lugar. É um grande livro, mas também uma espécie de problema que criou para si mesmo. O que fazer agora?

There are a lot of ideas in this novel, some of which I grasped, others less so. I take the view that this does not matter as the writing is at all times genuinely of a very high quality and it is a novel to read more than once to appreciate fully. His best novel so far

buy all his books