The literary talent of Ben Lerner is apparent from the first page of his new novel, 10:04. This novel is so much more than literary fiction. 10:04 is short story, poetry, children's fiction, philosophy and, one wonders, if it is even autobiography, at certain points.
At the beginning of 10:04, the unnamed protagonist, who is an author, is living in New York City and enjoying quite of bit of literary success with his first novel. Despite his rising career, the author's personal life is in a bit of turmoil as he has just had a scary medical diagnosis. In addition, his best friend Alex has decided that her biological clock is ticking and wants a child of her own and has requested that the author be the sperm donor.
The basic plot is the strongest part of the book. Throughout the story, however, Lerner experiments with other types of genres and strays a bit from the core story. At one point the author is working for a food co- op and his coworker tells him the story of her upbringing which includes a biological father and the father that actually raised her. This part reads like a short story, really a story within the main story.
At another point in the book, the author goes on a five week literary retreat where he writes quite a bit of poetry about his experience. Finally, the author tutors an eight year old at a local public school and the book the eight year old produces about paleontology is laid out in the novel as well.
At its core, 10:04 is about an author struggling with life in the early 21st century as a single man living in a big city. Lerner flushes out the author's struggles through short stories, poetry and even philosophy. Overall, 10:04 is a unique novel, unlike anything I have ever read before.
A beautiful and utterly original novel about making art,
love, and children during the twilight of an empire
In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed
unexpected literary success, has been diagnosed with a
potentially fatal heart condition, and has been asked by
his
best friend to help her conceive a child, despite his
dating
a rising star in the visual arts. In a New York of
increasingly frequent super storms and political unrest,
he
must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility
of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of
(unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be
under water.
In prose that Jonathan Franzen has called βhilarious
.
. . cracklingly intelligent . . . and original in every
sentence,β Lerner captures what itβs like to be alive now,
when the difficulty of imagining a future has changed our
relation to our present and our past. Exploring sex,
friendship, medicine, memory, art, and politics, 10:04 is
both a riveting work of fiction and a brilliant
examination
of the role fiction plays in our lives.
No excerpt available.
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