Author: Ben Lerner
In this upcoming novel author scrupulously investigates his own upper-middle-class upbringing to confront its messy interior of violence, betrayal, and mental illness. It is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths, where Adam Gordon, the center of the tale is a renowned debater. Adam 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’s mother Jane and his father, Jonathan, both work at a psychiatric clinic. 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 actually exhilarating intellectual inquiry about the ongoing crisis of identity, penetrating social insight, and deep psychological sensitivity.
The Topeka School
