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The Topeka School cover

The Topeka School

Ben Lerner

1

award won

23

score

#107 of 8,085 books · #60 in Fiction

Won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2019). Also shortlisted or longlisted for 3 other awards.

Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of '97. His parents are psychologists, his mom a famous author in the field. A renowned debater and orator, an aspiring poet, and - although it requires a lot of posturing and weight lifting - one of the cool kids, he's also one of the seniors who brings the loner Darren Eberheart into the social scene, with disastrous effects. Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is a riveting story about the challenges of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a startling prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the tyranny of trolls and the new right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.

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Publisher
Granta Books
ISBN-13
9781783785384
Genre
Fiction
Topics
Toxic masculinityComing of ageFamily and parentingLanguage and public discourseIdentity crisis among white men

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