FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR A TIME, GQ, Vulture, and WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK of the YEAR ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize Winner of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award ALSO NAMED ONE … Critics Circle Award
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize
Winner of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award
ALSO NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Esquire, NPR, Vogue, Amazon, Kirkus, The Times (UK), Buzzfeed, Vanity Fair, The Telegraph (UK), Financial Times (UK), Lit Hub, The Times Literary Supplement (UK), The New York Post, Daily Mail (UK), The Atlantic, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian (UK), Electric Literature, SPY.com, and the New York Public Library
From the award-winning author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station, 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
Adam 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.
Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School 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.
more
Jonathon and Jane are two well renown therapists; Jonathon with his uncanny ability to get his male patients to talk, Jane for her book about relationships. Working together at “The Foundation” these two believe they have everything going for them and are confident they are raising an emotionally stable son… right??? Adam is an amazing debater in the Midwest. Yet he, like so many teenagers, thinks the only way to make up for being smart is to be cruel. Enter Darren, an intellectually disabled “man-child” who used to be one of Adam’s friends back in preschool, is now the brunt of most of his classmates’ jokes. Ben Learner’s “The Topeka School”, takes a deep dive into the inner workings of his character’s minds as they try to make sense of themselves and the world around them.
When I was introduced to this book for a reading challenge I was partaking in, I was excited to be able to read a book representing my hometown state of Kansas. Especially considering it focused on our state capital, and was close to where I was born and raised. As the book starts, I am warmed with descriptions of Clinton Lake and the beauty it encompasses. Followed with recognition of a high school within the district I attended. I was laughing along with the quirks and nuances that only one growing up in this area would really understand. I had great hopes for this novel.
Unfortunately, I was beyond disappointed. Let’s begin with the language, I was appalled with the vulgarity. In the first time of my life, I felt ashamed to be from Kansas. I was shocked that an author could represent my state with so much profanity. Not to mention the lack of consistency, although this could have been intentional. I struggled to not only follow what was happening, but I could not track when it was happening or even who it was happening to! Plus, the grammatical errors were so often I did not comprehend half of what I was reading.
I wanted to love this book, I really did, but I am embarrassed to even call this book a representation of the state of Kansas. With that said, I am graciously rating it with 1 out of 5 stars.
Although, this book was not my cup of tea, if you have an interest in psychology, how the mind works, or just intrigued this may be a book you might enjoy. Please be aware, there are several triggers. Events of sexual abuse, physical abuse, affairs and abandonment are hinted throughout.
I loved this book. On the surface, Ben Lerner’s latest novel is about a small family who live in Kansas in the late nineties. The parents, Jane and Jonathan, are both psychiatrists who work at a renowned local clinic and their son, Adam, is a high school senior with a talent for debate and poetry. However, once you get a few pages in you realise that it’s so much more. It’s insightful, it’s political, it’s empathetic and honestly the actual plot of the novel isn’t that important. What you’re here for is to enjoy a masterclass in brilliant writing. The novel jumps around in space, time and perspective and this can mean the novel can come across as fragmented but I was so utterly spellbound by the words on the page that I didn’t care. I have never had scenes or characters feel more real to me than the ones in this book did.
THE TOPEKA SCHOOL tells the story of Adam Gordon, a high school debate champion, and his family: his mother, Jane, who is a famous feminist author and was abused by her father; and his father, Jonathan, who is a shrink at a famous psychiatric clinic and is having an affair. Told from multiple points of view, the book examines toxic masculinity, as well as many other toxic elements of contemporary culture. The book is smart, even downright brainy, and I loved it primarily because I enjoyed being in Lerner’s head.