New York City at night.
Noah is a staff writer for the HPR and a junior at Harvard College, where he studies History and Literature. This is the first installation of a series of book reviews he will be publishing.
The Review:
The first thing you might think when you read 10:04 is: “I friggin’ hate this Ben Lerner guy.” I read the book in class last year and the first question we all wanted to talk about was whether or not we liked Lerner’s fictionalized depiction of himself.
You can love him or hate him, but it’s the provocative nature of the question itself that makes this book cool. Lerner’s character is a Brooklyn based writer working on his second novel between hurricanes Irene and Sandy — a time that reflects Lerner’s contemplation of an apocalyptic future. What makes this such an interesting self portrait are the things Lerner is willing to reveal about himself; the fictional Ben tries to get his best friend pregnant, snorts ketamine with some young folks, watches pornography, and is in all honesty a pretty stunning narcissist (but a very smart one at that). He admits to doing some positively embarrassing things and thinking some brazenly reprehensible thoughts — the kind we all have but never want to admit, sometimes even to ourselves.
This uncensored look into Lerner’s mind doesn’t necessarily make him a more relatable person, because it’s often very unclear whether Lerner is being ironic or sincere. And though it may be intimate and confessional, it’s hard to know which parts of this novel are candid admissions and which are fabrications (or if the distinction necessarily matters at all). In the end, though, you don’t get to know the Ben Lerner in this novel the way that you know a friend or a classmate. You get to know him the way you know yourself: through an internal monologue featuring bursts of insecurity, confidence, guilt, inspiration, and self-centeredness — always hoping to find someone out there who likes you, someone who’s like you.
That is the sentiment of what I think is 10:04’s most interesting line: “I am with you and I know how it is.” Though you’ve never met Ben Lerner, you can feel some comfort in having a companion who gets it. There are a ton of ways to read it and it inspires some polarizing debate. But it also offers the opportunity for the recognition of book as companion, of writer and reader as a unique set of friends. There are so many awesome things to do in 2018, but I think a book can still give you that feeling of companionship and sanity in a way that things like TV and social media just can’t.
The Expert Opinion:
I recently had the pleasure of catching up with the wonderful Angela Allan, Assistant Director of Studies for History and Literature. Here are a few of her thoughts on 10:04:
On the state of fiction:
“Part of me is skeptical of Lerner’s universal sincerity because he spends so much of the novel talking about how reprehensible he is and the bubble that he lives in. So to make a claim that he is some universal spokesman or companion rings a little false, but it is interesting to imagine if that’s what a novelist can or should be aspiring to. I think the novel is very interested in what it means to be a novelist, which is relevant for a 21st century audience at a time when people are thinking about who’s even reading novels. Getting into that territory of whether it’s possible for a novelist to speak for everyone is a totally fraught question and one that I think he has to realize is a fool’s errand. But even to bring that to the forefront of people’s minds — has the status of literature has changed? — is an interesting and worthwhile topic for him to work through.”
On narcissism:
“I think it’s fascinating — and perhaps this speaks to some of the polarizing ideas about Ben Lerner—that there’s a kind of narcissism to the novel. And I think it’s interesting whether or not that narcissism is something that everyone implicitly understands at some point or if it’s somehow a product of a 2010’s mindset. It’s such a great litmus test of people’s reactions, and I like that about the book. What does it say about Ben Lerner? Well, it says a number of things. But it perhaps says even more about how people react to him. And that may have to do with their feelings about narcissism. It may have to do with their feelings about literature. But this book is contemplative of all those things.”
The Rundown:
How to read it: Fast! And casually. You can speed through this book in a few days if you’ve got the time, or you can space it out over the course of a longer period. But don’t agonize over it, especially some of the more academic sounding passages.
Most memorable moment: Lerner journeys to the fertility clinic where he grows paranoid about masturbating into a cup. He’s nervous about accidentally contaminating the sample, but he’s more nervous about what category of porn to choose from the available selection.
Page Count: 244
Where to get it: Amazon looks like a good deal with a price just under $10.
Favorite Quote (2 this time):
“I know it’s hard to understand / I am with you, and I know how it is.”
“I’d use [the image] for the cover of my book — not the one I was contracted to write about fraudulence, but the one I’ve written in its place for you, to you, on the very edge of fiction.”
If you like this, you might like: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman
Image Credit: Unsplash/Andre Benz