![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This is where readers find Adam when the novel opens. His belief in “the incommensurability of language and experience” and that experience is always preconceived, never purely itself, leaves him in a state of alienation and insecurity. Doubts that he (or anyone) can experience reality directly, without any mediation, foster his abiding sense that he’s a fake. Adam Gordon narrates his year living in Madrid with an equivocation that results from non-stop self-medication, a loose grasp of the Spanish language, and his conviction that language can only imperfectly convey reality. Afflicted with imposter syndrome, Adam, fearing he’s nothing more than his “face value,” obsessively broods over his authenticity as a person and a poet. At face value, the story is about a young poet from Kansas, Adam Gordon, living in Madrid on a literary fellowship during the 2004 terrorist bombings. Reviews praised it as “hip, smart, and very funny” and “unusually brilliant.” Gary Sernovitz’s comment in The New York Times that the novel’s “plotting is scant,” and “the real action of the novel is interior,” also mirrors prevailing takes on the narrative. Ben Lerner’s debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station (2011), received widespread critical acclaim. ![]()
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