Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Topeka School

This a very well written and complex book that just wasn’t for me. The writing style is interesting and feels like fictionalized nonfiction, but the interwoven and meandering perspectives and callbacks were a struggle for me to read and to feel like I truly comprehended all that was packed into the pages. And there were a lot of details about very dull things (high school debate rules, for example). It has alternating POVs of a son, mother, and father in Topeka, KS, mostly in the late nineties (though it jumps back and forth between the past and future) and is interspersed with narratives about an unrelated peer (who I thought would be more important to the central characters/plot than he was - he was used more as an example/object of analysis). I would be hard pressed to describe the plot of the novel - it doesn’t seem to really be about any event or series of events in particular, but more about how we make sense of our lives in the present as well as how we look back on the events that shape us, how patterns repeat across time and cultures, how masculinity is formed and explored and deconstructed, and the language we use for it all (etc). It’s a slice of life, and while the characters do occasionally touch on their different perspectives of the same event, we only get a part of the story for a lot of the narrative, which is frustrating. It says a lot about toxic masculinity but not nearly enough from the female perspective. It was a difficult read for me, required a lot of focus, especially since so little really happens, and this made it feel, to me, very boring and unduly pretentious.

It is a thought-provoking read, however; even after writing the review above I continued thinking about the novel and other things I liked and did not like. For example, I liked how it examined different presentations of toxic masculinity, from the obvious (in Darren, and in Adam among his peers) as well as in less obvious ways (such as when Jonathan, usually exemplifying the exact opposite of toxically masculine responses, still cheats on his wives and displays misplaced anger when confronting his guilt about that infidelity).

However I didn’t come away from the novel with any particularly new insights/ways of thinking about this kind of masculinity. The characters in the novel weren’t very sympathetic or likable. My main takeaway was “wow I really don’t want to raise a teenage son.” In fine (to quote the novel), I think it would have worked better for me had it been a true memoir; I think my expectations of fiction are different, and this just didn't work for me.

Content Warnings

delia0222's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

onceandfuturereads's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this one. Especially the Jane parts. The ending was a “wow” for me. Wrapped all of the ideas up quite nicely.

Content Warnings

soavezefiretto's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Read almost back to back with Franzen's Crossroads, and found this much better. More masterful and profound, less concerned with showing mastery and depth. Nothing was out of place here (like whole Navajo subplot in Crossroads).

Content Warnings

nataliaalbin's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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