{"product_id":"9781250758002","title":"The Topeka School : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Ben Lerner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE \u003ci\u003eLOS ANGELES TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BOOK PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eONE OF \u003ci\u003eTHE \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eTOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eTIME, GQ, Vulture, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eWASHINGTON POST \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eTOP 10 BOOK of the YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eALSO NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: \u003ci\u003eEsquire, \u003c\/i\u003eNPR\u003ci\u003e, Vogue,\u003c\/i\u003e Amazon, \u003ci\u003eKirkus, The Times \u003c\/i\u003e(UK), Buzzfeed, \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e(UK), \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e (UK), Lit Hub, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e (UK), \u003ci\u003eThe New York Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail \u003c\/i\u003e(UK), \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e (UK), Electric Literature, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSPY.com, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eand the New York Public Library \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the award-winning author of \u003ci\u003e10:04 \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLeaving the Atocha Station\u003c\/i\u003e, a tender and expansive family drama set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century: a tale of adolescence, transgression, and the conditions that have given rise to the trolls and tyrants of the New Right\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting “lost boys” to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak. Adam is also one of the seniors who bring the loner Darren Eberheart—who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his father’s patient—into the social scene, to disastrous effect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeftly shifting perspectives and time periods, Ben Lerner's \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths: Jane’s reckoning with the legacy of an abusive father, Jonathan’s marital transgressions, the challenge of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a riveting prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the trolls and tyrants of the New Right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e rocks an American amplitude, ranging freely from parenthood to childhood, from toxic masculinity to the niceties of cunnilingus . . . \u003cb\u003eLerner’s own arsenal has always included a composer’s feel for orchestration, a ventriloquist’s vocal range and a fine ethnographic attunement\u003c\/b\u003e . . . I could say more— about trauma, sex, paradox, magic— but only at the cost of further reducing this irreducible novel, which seeks instead to spread its readers beyond their borders with its \u003cb\u003efertile intelligence\u003c\/b\u003e and its even more abundant heart...\u003cb\u003eA high-water mark in recent American fiction.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e—Garth Risk Hallberg, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinarily brilliant novel that’s also accessible to anyone yearning for illumination in our disputatious era\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Through the wizardry of Lerner’s prose, this battle of adolescent elocution becomes an emblem for the fiery state of American culture . . . \u003cb\u003eAmong the myriad miracles of \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is that it accomplishes so much, captures so much and questions so much about America in fewer than 300 pages\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e—Ron Charles, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e] is \u003cb\u003ethoroughly, intimidatingly brilliant and absolutely contemporary\u003c\/b\u003e . . . It's funny, and at times, painfully acute . . . [Lerner] is a supremely gifted prose stylist, at once theoretical and conversational; he never bores or blathers, and is always limpid. Rather than inviting the reader to look at him or his life, he invites the reader to look through him.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Christine Smallwood, \u003ci\u003eHarper's \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003cb\u003eThe best book yet by the most talented writer of his generation\u003c\/b\u003e . . . [Lerner] treats the self like an archive of social data from which it is possible to construct a larger story about our times . . . Jane, in particular, is an astonishing creation; it is hard to think of another character in recent fiction who shows up so vividly on the page . . .  a particle accelerator of a novel.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Giles Harvey, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Fiercely intelligent.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Joumana Khatib, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ben Lerner is moving from strength to strength, and \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e displays a unique mind and sensibility on the prowl.\" \u003cbr\u003e--Dwight Garner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e2019 Critics' Picks\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  “A triumph of ventriloquism . . . [Lerner] has written a \u003cb\u003eperfectly weighted, hugely intelligent, entirely entertaining novel\u003c\/b\u003e that does more than simply mine his childhood or explore what it is to be an author; he has taken on American masculinity, group identity and marginalization, political messaging and generational exchange, and has done so not didactically but generously and with admirable sensitivity.” \u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Because Lerner draws so freely from his own life, he is often grouped together with other writers of autofiction, like Karl Ove Knausgaard and Sheila Heti, which does his work a slight disservice. It ignores his real lineage, the great literature of passivity, failure and refusal: Melville’s Bartleby, the novels of Robert Walser and László Krasznahorkai.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Parul Seghal, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003cb\u003eLerner is a dazzlingly intelligent writer\u003c\/b\u003e, and \u003cb\u003efor anyone looking to understand contemporary America\u003c\/b\u003e this tale of toxic masculinity, resentful outcasts, rigged high-school debates and political disaster is a good place to start.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Lerner is] one of the most acclaimed writers in the English-speaking world . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e] is not just a bildungsroman . . . but \u003cb\u003ea polyphonic portrait of an entire community\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Lerner can get away with writing so many books that are autofictional because a spirit speaks through him—because his language takes on a life of its own.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Becca Rothfeld, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I dunno if Ben Lerner was reading a lot of Faulkner when he wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School \u003c\/i\u003eor if he naturally shares some of that writer’s fixations (clan, memory, language) and modes (doom-filled, funny, allusive), but either way: damn.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVulture \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003cb\u003e#1 Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Absorbing . . . Despite the book's specificity in place and time—Kansas in the late 1990s—it is really America that is lying on the therapist's couch.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Public Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With acute social insight into the crisis of toxic masculinity and deep psychological penetration into one Midwestern family, [\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e] is \u003cb\u003ethe rare novel of ideas that never skimps on depth of feeling\u003c\/b\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Adrienne Westenfeld, \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In Lerner's work, an anticapitalist rhetoric indebted to critical theory is wedded to a lyricism that finds an eerie beauty in what it negates, like a black light . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e] proves that Lerner, without sacrificing the idiosyncratic charms of his earlier books, can do more things with the novel form.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Evan Kindley, \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ben Lerner’s \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is the best novel of the Donald Trump era thus far\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Maybe the most remarkable thing about \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is the way it models this possibility by gathering together the apparently distant and unrelated—psychotherapy, high school debate, Kansan politics, concussions, the drama of a marriage—into a story that feels sincere and generous.”\u003cbr\u003e—Ryan Lackey, \u003ci\u003eSlant\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Autofiction master Lerner (\u003ci\u003e10:04\u003c\/i\u003e) returns with \u003cb\u003ehis most expansive novel to date\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Narration from the present-day and interludes hinting at a terrible tragedy add intrigue to this study of polarization and toxic masculinity.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This third novel from Lerner (\u003ci\u003eLeaving the Atocha Station\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e10:04\u003c\/i\u003e) arrives laden with the kind of hype that can sink a story from the get-go (“the future of the novel is here”). And then the book itself—page by page, sentence by sentence—surmounts it . . . The onset of a coming, nameless dread is palpable—as is the sublime pleasure of Lerner’s prodigious mastery of plot, style, and form. \u003cbr\u003e—Corey Seymour, \u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eAwe-inspiring\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Lerner has hit on something deep, and true, in the portrait of “debate” in this book . . . The beautiful recollections of childhood in \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School \u003c\/i\u003eallow for a \u003ci\u003ePortrait of the Artist\u003c\/i\u003e–type origin story.” \u003cbr\u003e—Mark Greif, \u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Provocative and illuminating, this is a story for your head and your heart to enjoy.” \u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eSPY.com \u003c\/i\u003e(12 Best Books of the Year) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[An] essayistic and engrossing novel . . . Few writers are so deeply engaged as Lerner in how our interior selves are shaped by memory and consequence . . . Increasingly \u003cb\u003epowerful and heartbreaking \u003c\/b\u003eas the story moves on. \u003cb\u003eAutofiction at its smartest and most effective\u003c\/b\u003e: self-interested, self-interrogating, but never self-involved.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (Starred Review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ben Lerner’s forthcoming novel \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e weaves\u003cb\u003e a masterful narrative \u003c\/b\u003eof the impact that mental illness, misogyny, homophobia, politics, and religion have on children who want to be men . . . \u003cb\u003eIt’s rare to find a book that is simultaneously searing in its social critique and so lush in its prose that it verges on poetry.\u003c\/b\u003e” \u003cbr\u003e—Nikki Shaner-Bradford, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e (Staff Pick) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ben Lerner is arguably \u003cb\u003ethe hottest novelist writing in America today\u003c\/b\u003e, in complete control of\u003cbr\u003ehis ideas and his prose, and ambitious with both.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is a kind of 21st-century \u003ci\u003eThe Sound and the Fury\u003c\/i\u003e—a kaleidoscopic portrait that masterfully connects one family and its traumas to wider cultural dysfunction . . . Lerner's novel offers a compelling exploration of how we got here, an\u003cbr\u003ed where we might go.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eStar Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of exhilarating intellectual inquiry, penetrating social insight, and deep psychological sensitivity. To the extent that we can speak of a future at present, I think the future of the novel is here.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Sally Rooney, author of \u003ci\u003eNormal People\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ben Lerner has redefined what it means for a writer to inhabit an American present by showing how a family reckons with its past. Here the personal and political are masterfully interwoven. \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School \u003c\/i\u003eis brave, furious, and, finally, a work of love.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Ocean Vuong, author of \u003ci\u003eOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ben Lerner is a masterful writer who destabilizes the very notion of what a novel can achieve by making it new at every turn. \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is not only a fiction for our times, but for the ages: insightful, humane, politically astute, and true.”\u003cbr\u003e—Hilton Als, author of \u003ci\u003eWhite Girls\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In Ben Lerner’s riveting third novel, Midwestern America in the late nineties becomes a powerful allegory of our troubled present. \u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e deftly explores how language not only reflects but is at the very center of our country’s most insidious crises. In prose both richly textured and many-voiced, we track the inner lives of one white family’s interconnected strengths and silences . . . This is Lerner’s most essential and provocative creation yet.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Claudia Rankine, author of \u003ci\u003eCitizen: An American Lyric\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Topeka School\u003c\/i\u003e is what happens when one of the most discerning, ambitious, innovative, and timely writers of our day writes his most discerning, ambitious, innovative and timely novel to date. It’s a complete pleasure to read Lerner experimenting with other minds and times, to watch his already profound talent blooming into new subjects, landscapes, and capacities. This book is a prehistory of a deeply disturbing national moment, but it’s written with the kind of intelligence, insight, and searching that makes one feel well-accompanied and, in the final hour, deeply inspired.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Maggie Nelson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ben Lerner is a brilliant novelist, unafraid to make of the novel something truly new . . . He is one of my favorite living writers.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Rachel Kushner, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Flamethrowers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003e10:04\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Reading Ben Lerner gives me the tingle at the base of my spine that happens whenever I encounter a writer of true originality. He is a courageous, immensely intelligent artist who panders to no one and yet is a delight to read.\" —Jeffrey Eugenides, author of\u003ci\u003e The Marriage Plot\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Just how many singular reading experiences can one novelist serve up? . . . \u003ci\u003e10:04 \u003c\/i\u003eis a mind–blowing book … Strange and spectacular.\" —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s \u003ci\u003eFresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a book that belongs to the future.” —Giles Harvey,\u003ci\u003e The New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Lerner’s] concerns wrap around the modern moment with terrifying rightness . . . \u003ci\u003e10:04 \u003c\/i\u003edescribes what it feels like to be alive.” —John Freeman,\u003ci\u003e The Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mr. Lerner is among the most interesting young American novelists at present . . . We come to relish seeing the world through [the narrator’s] eyes.” —Dwight Garner,\u003ci\u003e The New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ingenious . . . This brain-tickling book imbues real experiences with a feeling of artistic possibility, leaving the observable world ‘a little changed, a little charged.’” —Sam Sacks,\u003ci\u003e The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year (2019), Short-listed Folio Prize Shortlist (2020), Short-listed Pulitzer Prize - Finalist (2020), Long-listed Time Magazine Top 10 Books of the Year (2019), Short-listed L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist (2019), Long-listed NYPL Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed Esquire Magazine Best Books of the Year (2019), Short-listed National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee (2019), Long-listed Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed NPR Best Book of the Year (2019), Long-listed Vogue Magazine Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed NYPL Book for Reading and Sharing (2019), Long-listed NYT Outstanding Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed Washington Post Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed Time Magazine Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed Amazon.com Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year (2019), Winner L.A. Times Book Prize - Winner (2019), Long-listed New York Magazine Best Books of the Year (2019)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781250758002\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40739406381262,"sku":"9781250758002","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_23a2de18-8dac-4e7d-9842-a0df8f1a22d8.jpg?v=1641363257","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781250758002","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}