Reviews

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner

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j_m_alexander's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective

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

4.75

Toxic masculinity: a set of harmful social guidelines and behaviors that are associated with manliness. It can have a negative impact on men, women, and society.

Masculine fragility: a state of anxiety that occurs when men feel they are not meeting cultural expectations of masculinity. This can lead to compensatory behaviors and attitudes to restore a sense of manhood.

“...the real men—who are themselves in fact perpetual boys, since America is adolescence without end—had to differentiate themselves with violence...”

A non-linear narrative that is exploring issues around masculinity in our American culture, centering on a couple teenagers in the 1990's with glimpses that goes both forward and backward in the lives of a small family. Lerner skillfully plays with form and language in intimate scenes, there were scenes that read as so exceptionally realistic and vivid, so emotionally messy and completely believable that for me it was a one-of-a-kind reading experience, but not necessarily an enjoyable one. Many of the most affecting scenes were incredibly uncomfortable. This is a book that is very concerned with introspection and relationships, how we think of ourselves, our values, and others in relation to ourselves and in the context of larger society.

“Then something happened in that space her silence made: my speech started to break down, fragmenting under the emotional pressure, became a litany of non-sequiturs, like how some of the poets you admire sound to me, or I guess what Palin or Trump sound like, delivering nonsense as if it made sense, were argument or information, although I was speaking much faster than politicians speak; my speech was accelerating as if I were chasing after meaning as it receded; it was like I was having a stroke.”

I have never thought much about competitive debate, but now I am thanks to this book. I can see that the long passages that dive in to this topic might really not be for some people, but it is really getting at something about how we view language, how we deal with arguments and politics.

“There was some kind of special power involved in repurposing language, redistributing the voices, changing the principle of patterning, faint sparks of alternative meaning in the shadow of the original sense, the narrative.”

This book has been referred to autofiction, since many biographical details of the primary character mirror that of Ben Lerner himself, and I have to imagine that's what allows him to write something so very relatable with such specificity.

I think this is probably enough waxing on, but all to say I really dug this book that deals in questions much more than solutions or answers, I am certainly still thinking about some of the scenes juxtaposed within this story. Early on this book did remind me of one other - The Corrections - the obvious reason being the use of multiple perspectives within a family examining our culture, but there is also something concordant in the tone of both of these writers as well. Lerner seems like a younger, less tidy Jonathan Franzen, which personally I think of as high praise.

epimetheus_b's review against another edition

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3.0

I quite enjoyed the writing - the poetic use of language, the details drawn from history and literature, particularly the vivid and detailed scenes in debate competitions - but I found the story less compelling.

lbjessome's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.5

This was excellent and I kind of hated it. It is a real deep dive into twisted and lonely masculinity, rage and the limitations of psychoanalysis and psychology. I am not sure I was ready for it.

janey's review against another edition

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4.0

I feel as though the novelist in Lerner is finding his voice, incorporating fiction and nonfiction seamlessly as he tells a story that seems very true, whether or not factual.

admorobo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

kid_a's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

4.0

jaclyncrupi's review against another edition

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5.0

Ben Lerner is one of the best (thought-provoking, form reinventing, intellectually insightful) writers of my generation and this might just be his best book yet. I’m so happy I am alive at the same time as Lerner so he can help me make sense of this moment. If you have any inclination towards psychological inquiry make this your next read.