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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
I can’t recall a book in recent years that provoked such mixed feelings. The passages about Adam’s parents (and grandparents) dragged and were sometimes exasperating. The sections about Adam, Darren, and the world of high school debate, however, were just as brilliant. Maybe I’m susceptible to any narrative that follows nerdy Midwestern teens growing up in the ‘90s, but I get the buzz that this book produced. The superb final chapter feels like essential reading.
Quite a disappointment. I see what Lerner is trying to create, but it simply doesn’t do anything cleverly, fluidly, or engagingly.
2.5 stars. There were a few sentences that hit home with me. But that was it. Not the story, not the characters, just a few sentences. I had sympathy for the main character, because he suffered from migraines, and I too suffer from them as well. Some old school memories flashed up, since this when I was a teenager. Other than that, I was indifferent.
Ben Lerner uses every line as a chance to be super poetic and extra clever. In turn, the book itself is entirely devoid of romance. There is not a character I rooted for, a moment I fell in love with - and that, for me, is hugely dissatisfying.
Ever since watching "The Wizard of Oz" as a child, I've wanted to be a storm chaser. Not just a storm chaser, per se, but a tornado chaser, like those guys (and Helen Hunt) in "Twister," another movie that made storm chasing look oh so cool. I faced a few setbacks along the way, like living in a state that gets only the very occasional — and never very powerful — tornado, and regardless of how hard I pushed my parents to relocate the family to Kansas or somewhere else inside "Tornado Alley," I was stuck to live a tornado free life in Arizona and, later, Florida.
This wasn't the only setback. In 1998, enamored as I was with tornadoes, I insisted on visiting Universal Studios to "ride" their new "Twister" attraction. We waited for three hours in the June heat — I remember the beads of sweat rolling down my back to this day — and finally arrived inside to watch ... what, exactly? Some special effects that made it kind of, sort of look like you're mere meters away from a wispy column of steam meant to resemble a tornado? Googling it now, I'm happy to report that in 2017 "Twister" was closed, replaced by some Jimmy Fallon nonsense that has the advantage of replacing the worst ride ever.
All of which brings us to the third paragraph, the one in which I finally mention "The Topeka School," the cover of which caused that old fascination of mine to flare up once again. A book about the life I COULD have had if we had lived in "Tornado Alley" and I'd grown up chasing tornadoes!
Except it's not. I'm sorry to say that "The Topeka School" is about as much of a letdown as that "Twister" ride at Universal Studios. There aren't even any tornadoes featured! Only a passing reference to one. "Don't judge a book by its cover" indeed!
But I get it ... the tornado featured on the cover of Ben Lerner's book is meant to serve as a metaphor for the storm that our characters can see gathering over America from the front porch in their 1997 setting. Riiiight. Clever clever.
It doesn't work. Lerner is trying to write a big, beautiful book on Trumpism, toxic masculinity, free speech, #MeToo, etc etc etc. All the things that make up modern American life. He swings wildly, shoots for the stars, throws a hail mary pass — choose whichever sports metaphor you like best — and misses. He tries to take on too much here, and what we're left with is an overwritten, overwrought, overbaked novel that feels autobiographical but is too plodding and predictable to be real.
I wanted this to be good, I really did, and there are moments where you recognize in the writing that this could have been something special, the Great (Modern) American Novel, perhaps, but it never comes close. The writing is too dense, what little story there is too hard to follow, the characters blending together, all leaving me feeling I haven't been paying enough attention.
I appreciate the fact that Lerner here is attempting a Michael Haneke, who in his film "The White Ribbon" shows us the Nazis as children, a "how did they/things get that way?" kind of novel, but despite a genuinely intriguing setting (and an excellent cover) it just doesn't work.
These times require a better novel. Preferably one with real, not just metaphorical, tornadoes.
This wasn't the only setback. In 1998, enamored as I was with tornadoes, I insisted on visiting Universal Studios to "ride" their new "Twister" attraction. We waited for three hours in the June heat — I remember the beads of sweat rolling down my back to this day — and finally arrived inside to watch ... what, exactly? Some special effects that made it kind of, sort of look like you're mere meters away from a wispy column of steam meant to resemble a tornado? Googling it now, I'm happy to report that in 2017 "Twister" was closed, replaced by some Jimmy Fallon nonsense that has the advantage of replacing the worst ride ever.
All of which brings us to the third paragraph, the one in which I finally mention "The Topeka School," the cover of which caused that old fascination of mine to flare up once again. A book about the life I COULD have had if we had lived in "Tornado Alley" and I'd grown up chasing tornadoes!
Except it's not. I'm sorry to say that "The Topeka School" is about as much of a letdown as that "Twister" ride at Universal Studios. There aren't even any tornadoes featured! Only a passing reference to one. "Don't judge a book by its cover" indeed!
But I get it ... the tornado featured on the cover of Ben Lerner's book is meant to serve as a metaphor for the storm that our characters can see gathering over America from the front porch in their 1997 setting. Riiiight. Clever clever.
It doesn't work. Lerner is trying to write a big, beautiful book on Trumpism, toxic masculinity, free speech, #MeToo, etc etc etc. All the things that make up modern American life. He swings wildly, shoots for the stars, throws a hail mary pass — choose whichever sports metaphor you like best — and misses. He tries to take on too much here, and what we're left with is an overwritten, overwrought, overbaked novel that feels autobiographical but is too plodding and predictable to be real.
I wanted this to be good, I really did, and there are moments where you recognize in the writing that this could have been something special, the Great (Modern) American Novel, perhaps, but it never comes close. The writing is too dense, what little story there is too hard to follow, the characters blending together, all leaving me feeling I haven't been paying enough attention.
I appreciate the fact that Lerner here is attempting a Michael Haneke, who in his film "The White Ribbon" shows us the Nazis as children, a "how did they/things get that way?" kind of novel, but despite a genuinely intriguing setting (and an excellent cover) it just doesn't work.
These times require a better novel. Preferably one with real, not just metaphorical, tornadoes.
Similar to my experience reading another of his novels, I feel like I'm only able to skim the surface of Lerner's intellect. I didn't find this alienating, as there was still much to enjoy and consider. Particularly thought-provoking: the use of language/speech in relation to power/oppression, the question of self/identity as depicted through characters' 1st- and 3rd-person experience of an event in their life, the role of memory as a tool of time distortion or collapse. Smart dude. Smart book. I'm wholly impressed, and frankly a teeny bit envious.
There were some hints of brilliance and pages I liked in this, but overall it was kind of a mess. Like many reviewers said, Jane's sections are by far the most successful. Most of it wasn't for me, though. It's a bunch of stream-of-consciousness musings from different characters, trying to say something as a whole about the central family and also America and...that's a lot.
I loved this novel... it fit perfectly within one of my favorite genres "witty/smart/dark midwestern bildunsroman." The novel often felt like it was trying to be very postmodern with all its voices and sporadic punctuation; but I felt the combination of fully-fleshed out characters that I cared about or at least believed in PLUS something smart to say about American masculinity was excellent. I couldn't put this book down until I got to the semi-resolution.
slow-paced