Leaving the Atocha Station
Books | Fiction / Literary
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(61)
Ben Lerner
Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. What is actual when our experiences are mediated by language, technology, medication, and the arts? Is poetry an essential art form, or merely a screen for the reader's projections? Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam's "research" becomes a meditation on the possibility of the genuine in the arts and beyond: are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? A witness to the 2004 Madrid train bombings and their aftermath, does he participate in historic events or merely watch them pass him by?In prose that veers between the comic and tragic, the self-contemptuous and the inspired, Leaving the Atocha Station is a portrait of the artist as a young man in an age of Google searches, pharmaceuticals, and spectacle.Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979, Ben Lerner is the author of three books of poetry The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award, a Fulbright Scholar in Spain, and the recipient of a 2010-2011 Howard Foundation Fellowship. In 2011 he became the first American to win the Preis der Stadt Münster für Internationale Poesie. Leaving the Atocha Station is his first novel.
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Author
Ben Lerner
Pages
186
Publisher
Coffee House Press
Published Date
2011-08-23
ISBN
1566892929 9781566892926
Community ReviewsSee all
"I really loved this book. As someone who studied Spanish lit, has taught Spanish, and lived in Madrid for a year, it hit me in such a personal way. So many of the places—train stations, neighborhoods, parks, even specific foods and drinks—brought back memories. The random Spanish phrases and cultural details felt so true to life not even just in Spain, but in Madrid, specifically. The main character’s imposter syndrome, especially around language, was super relatable. Living in your second language can be exhausting, and he captures that feeling of never quite saying what you mean or feeling like you’re always faking it. His go-to pocket phrases, the pressure to sound smart, the social anxiety—all of it hit close to home. The book made me reflect on that time in my life, but also on bigger things like art, identity, and what it means to be genuine. Because the narrator is a poet, he notices all these small, everyday details and turns them into something thoughtful. Sometimes it makes you wonder if he’s really seeing something meaningful, or just trying to sound deep—and I liked sitting in that tension as a reader. It reminded me of why I fell in love with the language and the culture in the first place. It was like revisiting an old version of myself. Such a great short read—funny, honest, and smart in a subtle way. Highly recommend."
Chloé Carrillo
"Intriguing narrative voice. Draws you in from the first paragraph. Highly recommend this short read if you’re looking for something philosophical, cerebral and utterly human. "
Avery D