Lerner is an american poet, novelist, essayist, and critic who has been a fulbright scholar, a howard foundation fellow, a finalist for the national book award, a guggenheim fellow and is currently a macarthur fellow. Ben lerner on adolescence and his forthcoming novel the new. With the start of 2020 just days away, former president obama is giving fans a look back at the best books he read over the past year. Its rare to find a book that is simultaneously searing in its social critique and so lush in its prose that it verges on poetry. Lerner is smart, but as much as people bag on franzen, theres purpose in his words when he writes the first paragraph of the corrections is a better prose poem than this, by far. Lerner born february 4, 1979 is an american poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. Lerner is a professor of english at brooklyn college. In a new york of increasingly frequent superstorms and social unrest, he must reckon with his own mortality.
The book recommendations, which included a mix of fiction and nonfiction, show barack obama continues to remain the avid reader that he is known to be. Ben lerner is an american poet, novelist, and critic. Literary friction is a conversation about books and ideas, hosted by friends carrie and octavia. The topeka school by ben lerner is published by granta. Ben lerner is the author of three books of poetry the lichtenberg figures, angle of yaw, and mean free path, three novels leaving the atocha station, 10. He has been a fulbright fellow, a finalist for the national book award for poetry, a howard foundation fellow, and a guggenheim fellow.
If we are able to see things a little differently, the novel seems to say, if amid the chaos we can locate pockets of potentialfor connection, for collectivitythen theres hope. Both are great on their own and somehow work brilliantly within the context of the novel. He grew up in topeka, kansas, a place that figures prominently in all of his books of poetry, and he is a 1997 graduate of topeka high school. We often visited weekday afternoons, since alex was unemployed, and i, a writer. The novel belongs to the genres of autofiction and metafiction. In 2003 lerner traveled on a fulbright scholarship to madrid, spain, where he. In 2004, library journal named it one of the years twelve best books of poetry. A trio of readers join kate and cassie with their reading recommendations. Our recommended books this week take readers far away from new york city and its environs, with settings from uruguay to israel to the american midwest and the smalltown south. If youre looking for new material to read, barack obamas. The lichtenberg figures appeared in a german translation in 2010, for which it. Dakota johnsons new house, outdoor voices, and book recommendations plus the fallout that has everyone wondering where prince harry and prince williams relationship lies. Lerner lectures and consults nationally, while her psychotherapy practice remains at the heart of her work. Ben lerner is a poet, novelist, essayist, and critic.
A successful novelist, he has recently been diagnosed with a heart condition that could prove fatal. Ben lerner author of leaving the atocha station goodreads. As the novel opens, our hero has earned a hefty advance for his second book on the strength of his debut and a new yorker story. His first novel, leaving the atocha station, won the 2012 believer book award.
Book prize fiction winner ben lerner on the topeka school. An admirer of ben lerner s highly praised new novel looks for other avant garde avenues to explore alex preston. Ben lerner has 43 books on goodreads with 106548 ratings. He has received fellowships from the fulbright, guggenheim, and macarthur foundations, and is the author of two internationally acclaimed novels, leaving the atocha stationand 10. Maddie crum, the huffington post reading ben lerner gives me the tingle at the base of my spine that happens whenever i encounter a writer of true originality. He has served as a fulbright scholar in madrid and as a guggenheim fellow.
Hard to say, but the book sensitively gathers up the evidence of abuse, violation, and cruelty in adams life. Lerner alternates sections written from the perspectives of adam, his mother, and his father with interludes about darren, a mentally troubled teen who committed an act of violence at a party that adam feels complicit in. Books by ben lerner author of leaving the atocha station. He has received fellowships from the fulbright, guggenheim, and macarthur foundations, and is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels leaving the atocha station and 10. Ben lerner ben lerner was born in the year 1979 in topeka, kansas to his therapist parents. Ben lerner is a brilliant novelist, and one unafraid to make of the novel something truly new. He has been a fulbright scholar, a finalist for the national book award, a finalist for the national book critics circle award, a howard foundation fellow, a guggenheim fellow, and a macarthur fellow, among other honors. Ben lerners first two books of fictionleaving the atocha station.
A family drama set in the american midwest in the 90s. Barack obamas favorite books of 2019 will be your new. Each month we interview an author about their book and build the show around a related theme anything from resistance to coastlines to corpses. Obama also reminded his followers of 19 other book recommendations that he called out earlier in the year. Ben lerners latest novel, the topeka school, is a tale of family. Lerners third novel reunites us with adam gordon, the protagonist and lerner surrogate of his much acclaimed debut, leaving the atocha. The author of the topeka school, winner of the 2019 times book prize for fiction, speaks on poetry, debate, citizenship and crisis homeschooling. We talk to awardwinning poet, novelist and academic ben lerner upon publication of his new book no art making available for the first time in the uk his previous three collections of poetry. Ben lerners much hyped latest novel reads like an audit of. Winter 2020 picks for adults the new york public library. In 2004 library journal named it one of the years 12 best books of poetry. The bookshelfs best books of 2019 the bookshelf abc.
The topeka school is not only a fiction for our times, but for the ages. Nimoy, good works foundation and laura donnelley, the samuel goldwyn. Same for other masters of this form russell edson, gary lutz, anne carson, c. His poetry collections include the lichtenberg figures, angle of yaw, and mean free path. Born and raised in topeka, kansas, writer and editor ben lerner earned a ba in political science and an mfa in creative writing from brown university. Home services handpicked professionals happiness guarantee. Adam gordon is a senior at topeka high school, class of 97. The book deals with love, art, city, illness, having children, and writing. Ben lerner has been a fulbright fellow, a finalist for the national book award for poetry, a howard foundation fellow, and a guggenheim fellow. Together they look at a melodramatic 19thcentury genre. In a way, that was good for the book, because it produced some. Barack obamas favorite books of 2019 spotlight powerful women. As the final book in his acclaimed trilogy is published, the topeka school. This echoes lerner s real life, in which his first novel, leaving the atocha station 2011, was a critical hit.
Best books for adults 2019 the new york public library. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your inbox. The book follows vollie frade through three tours in vietnam, a black ops mission he will forever regret, a marriage to the last survivor of a freelove commune in new mexico. Barack obama lists the books of 2019 that made the year a. Please read this book with me because everybody who reads it gets to enter a meadow where we can. It reads like hes writing for himself just trying to condense everything down so as to. His first novel, leaving the atocha station, won the 2012 believer book award, and excerpts from 10. That ben lerners third novel, the topeka school, was overlooked by the big literary awards this year is one of.
In 2015 he was awarded a prestigious macarthur fellowship. The firstperson narrator is a 33yearold writer who lives in new york city. He has been a fulbright scholar, a finalist for the national book award, a howard. He was awarded the hayden carruth prize for his cycle of fiftytwo sonnets, the lichtenberg figures. Ben lerner biography, age, family, wife, net worth, books. Ben lerner is a masterful writer who destabilizes the very notion of what a novel can achieve by making it new at every turn. Feminism and family systems theory continue to inform her writing. Ben lerner s forthcoming novel the topeka school weaves a masterful narrative of the impact that mental illness, misogyny, homophobia, politics, and religion have on children who want to be men.
Ben lerner s second novel begins with the moment it becomes a commodity. Ben lerner discards the riveting firstperson immediacy of his previous novels for a more wideranging approach in the topeka school, to mixed results. The lichtenberg figures, angle of yaw, and mean free path. Dakota johnsons new house, outdoor voices, and book. He has been a fulbright scholar, a finalist for the national book award. In the first scene the authornarrator, ben, meets his agent at an expensive restaurant in manhattan, where he. The topeka school by ben lerner set in the late 1990s, ben lerner s the topeka school centers on adam gordon, the debatewiz son of psychiatrists, as. Listen in for lively discussion, book recommendations. Lerner is best known for her scholarly work on the psychology of women and family relationships, and for her many bestselling books.