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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
If listening to characters psychoanalyze themselves and each other in unending inner monologues is your jam, this is the book for you. Or perhaps you enjoy reading long technical explanations of high school debate. Or if stilted references to real geographic landmarks and local businesses to prove the author's authentic knowledge of northeast Kansas really cooks your grits, well by golly, you best get on over to Watermark Books and Cafe at Douglas and Oliver just west of Eastborough and pick up a copy. (That's in Wichita, not Topeka. I'm a southcentral girl.) And I haven't even mentioned the semicolon abuse; semicolons should take out a restraining order.
Three stars because there are some really compelling stories buried in there somewhere. But they were few and far between and the best was just a vehicle to drive the others.
Three stars because there are some really compelling stories buried in there somewhere. But they were few and far between and the best was just a vehicle to drive the others.
The Topeka School is a great book, but I am just the wrong audience. Lerner executes a masterful connection between the "lost boys of privilege" (55) of the 90s and today, and I admire how he uses language, but I never connected with it -or with the characters, or with the plot. And the entire Darren storyline -no thank you.
The Topeka School is a novel about masculinity and the making of the modern age. It focuses on Adam Gordon, a Topeka High School senior trying to prove his title as a champion debater whilst maintaining his popular status. On the other side is Darren Eberheart, a loner who is suddenly welcomed into the popular kid scene. As the narrative moves into the past of Adam's parents and the future of Adam as an adult, it also returns to this point of two young men on the cusp of adulthood in the 90s, looking at the outsider figure and method of debating and expressing outrage in America.
This is a novel that tries to do a lot of things at once, looking at America over the past fifty years or so to follow the course of masculinity and free speech as well as the lives of Adam and his parents and those connected to them. At times this means that it can be confusing to follow until you settle into the different characters and time periods, but it is cleverly done to create tension around the events in the 90s and the act of violence at its heart. The novel is clearly very clever, with a lot of consideration of psychology, debate, and the state of America, but the elements didn't quite come together.
The Topeka School doesn't quite deliver on its promises, providing interesting characters and use of narrative, but not quite delving enough into what the issues it explores mean for people (both the young white men the novel focuses on and other people) both then and now.
This is a novel that tries to do a lot of things at once, looking at America over the past fifty years or so to follow the course of masculinity and free speech as well as the lives of Adam and his parents and those connected to them. At times this means that it can be confusing to follow until you settle into the different characters and time periods, but it is cleverly done to create tension around the events in the 90s and the act of violence at its heart. The novel is clearly very clever, with a lot of consideration of psychology, debate, and the state of America, but the elements didn't quite come together.
The Topeka School doesn't quite deliver on its promises, providing interesting characters and use of narrative, but not quite delving enough into what the issues it explores mean for people (both the young white men the novel focuses on and other people) both then and now.
I liked the focus on language, and how language can break down. Where is the line between sense and nonsense? Is "the spread" communicating more or less? The writing sometimes veered into stream of consciousness that reminded me of Kerouac. Can that convey meaning even when one idea is not logically or temporally consistent with the next?
Why "The Topeka School"? The Topeka School of psychology/psychoanalysis. The Topeka School of debate. The Topeka School of white gangsta rap. The Topeka School is where Adam learns to speak.
What is the significance of Darren in this? His lack of speech is a contrast to Adam's excess?
Why "The Topeka School"? The Topeka School of psychology/psychoanalysis. The Topeka School of debate. The Topeka School of white gangsta rap. The Topeka School is where Adam learns to speak.
What is the significance of Darren in this? His lack of speech is a contrast to Adam's excess?
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Fascinating read. Not the easiest to follow, but the personal narratives are what makes this a special read.
THE TOPEKA SCHOOL collapses past and present, first- and third-person, language and noise. Lerner recycles a lot of his same preoccupations from 10:04 here, but not in a way that bugged me. His look into high school debate was /priceless/—can't wait for this to be required reading for all "forensicators." Lerner's commentary on sexism, particularly toxic American masculinity, was extremely sharp and poignant; extremely impressive. Oh, speaking of semicolons, need to talk about why like every other sentence in the novel has one? Lerner is wicked smart, a poet and debater like Adam dizzyingly in control of language.
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Not sure if 4.5 or 5 stars but still one of the Best novel I've read this year.
I'm very confused seeding people in their reviews saying that the problem was Lerner's writing style, because I've found his prose one of the best among his contemporaries. Sure it's very dense, but still it produce in the reader anche eagerness to continue to read. Therefore I strongly disagree with those who find the novel "boring". Reading about toxic masculinity is not usually what I'm looking for in choosing the next reading and there were a few moments in which I found myself asking " Why am I reading this?" But it was so well written that I immeadiatly stopped thinking about it.
I'm very confused seeding people in their reviews saying that the problem was Lerner's writing style, because I've found his prose one of the best among his contemporaries. Sure it's very dense, but still it produce in the reader anche eagerness to continue to read. Therefore I strongly disagree with those who find the novel "boring". Reading about toxic masculinity is not usually what I'm looking for in choosing the next reading and there were a few moments in which I found myself asking " Why am I reading this?" But it was so well written that I immeadiatly stopped thinking about it.