In 'The Topeka School,' Ben Lerner explores the roots of toxic masculinity.
This time, Lerner summons more sociopolitical heft by casting back to late ’90s Kansas, his formative years. Taking “the past is prologue” approach, “The Topeka School” is one white male’s attempt to consider how white men, as the dominant power in this country, brought us to this current moment of “toxic masculinity,” the catchall explanation for male violence and misogyny.
Lerner, with his poet’s eye for the strengths and fallibility of language, is precise and prismatic in his investigations. He repeatedly returns to certain phrases and ideas . And each time, he invests the phrase or idea with new meaning, accumulated from all that has occurred in the novel since the last mention.The psychoanalytic idea of processing is another repeating motif that plays out a little differently for every character in “The Topeka School.
The chapters narrated by Gordon’s mother, Jane, a famous feminist author, much like Lerner’s real mother, are a revelation. She receives harassing phone calls from “the men,” the kind who would eventually troll the internet, angry at her theories. And she trolls them back by asking them to repeat themselves, as if she can’t hear.
A key analog to “The Topeka School,” one that Lerner subtly name-checks in the text, is Thomas Frank’s 2004 book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” The book tracks how the state flipped from blue-collar Democrat to populist Republican in the ’90s, namely with the election of Sen. Sam Brownback .
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