The main character of Lerner's novel is an unhappy young poet named Adam Gordon, who's been awarded a prestigious fellowship to study in Spain. It's too ironic and intellectual to be the kind of novel that really moves readers, but it's also flip, hip, smart, and very funny, albeit in a glum way. I'm probably making Leaving the Atocha Station sound like a call to duty rather than pleasure: in truth, it's both. These thoughts aren't, to quote the novel, just "the bland connective tissue between more eventful times" they a re the events. But Lerner's offbeat little novel manages to convey what everyday life feels like before we impose the structure of plot on our experience.Īlmost everything that happens here happens inside the main character's head, which runs day and night like one of those loop-the-loop computer screen savers, constantly generating digressions, fibs, self-criticisms and doubts. Austen and Dickens and Hammett got to me early and spoiled me: I like plot. Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of this kind of spinning-one's-wheels-in-the-sand fiction. How?īen Lerner's debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station is one of the most compelling books about nothing I've ever read. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Leaving the Atocha Station Author Ben Lerner
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