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10:04
10:04 | Ben Lerner
Following the international buzz for his debut, Leaving the Atocha Station, comes 10:04, Ben Lerner's electric second novel that blends artistry and wit, intelligence and tenderness. A unique collision between art and life by an extraordinary young writer. For readers of Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Lethem, Sheila Heti. Leaving the Atocha Station was hailed as "one of the truest (and funniest) novels...of his generation" (Lorin Stein, New York Review of Books), "a work so luminously original in style and form as to seem like a premonition, a comet from the future" (Geoff Dyer, The Observer). Now Lerner's second novel departs from Atocha's exquisite ironies in order to explore new territories of thought and feeling. 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 "hilarious...cracklingly intelligent...and original in every sentence," Lerner captures what it's like to be alive now, when the difficulty of imagining a future has changed our relation to both 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.
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blurb
TheEllieMo
10:04 | Ben Lerner
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I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

review
AshleyHoss820
10:04 | Ben Lerner
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Pickpick

I'm not 100% sure what I read, but I didn't hate it. I really liked exploring the interconnectedness of humanity. I also liked tagging along on the narrator's meandering thought trains, even if he is a bit self-centered. At one point, he has to make a...deposit of his, um, genetic material at a specific bank. That whole scene is just hilarious. 229/1,001 #1001Books #52BookClub Time in the Title; January #TBRTarot Whose Title Starts with a Number

CBee Awesome job! 10mo
AshleyHoss820 @CBee ☺️🧡 10mo
26 likes2 comments
review
JacintaMCarter
10:04 | Ben Lerner
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Mehso-so

#2021Book52
The parts of this novel that explored the narrator's relationships with the people around him were great. I would be willing to read a whole series expanding on those sections. But too much of the novel revolved around the narrator's inner monologue, which was just way too pretentious for my taste.

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BarbaraBB
10:04 | Ben Lerner
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Pickpick


Even though it‘s a bit meta, I enjoyed this book a lot. The MC is a writer/poet, wandering the streets of Brooklyn thinking of fatherhood, a fatal disease, The Challenger, Back to the Future and writing. Especially the first half of the book is so good and I adored the concept of the 24/7 Clocks movie which I wish would be for real.

#1001books #ReadYourSign ♏️ #Black

(Pic: Face masks are obliged for now, in public transport only)

Clwojick 🖤🖤🖤 4y
Megabooks Looking great, even with the mask, my dear! I hope you can read the Topeka school. It‘s even better. 4y
Ruthiella Not read any Learner yet but he‘s on my list! 4y
See All 6 Comments
KarenUK Topeka school is on my nightstand pile! .... glad to hear you recommend it @Megabooks 💕👍 4y
BarbaraBB @Megabooks @KarenUK I am looking forward to Topeka School too now! 4y
Megabooks @KarenUK @BarbaraBB I liked it more than 10:04, so I hope you enjoy it too! 4y
75 likes4 stack adds6 comments
blurb
BarbaraBB
10:04 | Ben Lerner
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#WeeklyForecast 25/20

For this week I hope to read these three books: the tagged one for #1001books, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet for #ATY2020 and America for Beginners for #Booked2020. Especially looking forward to Hotel, which I am starting right now!

squirrelbrain I loved Hotel when I read it last year for #readingusa- and I learned a lot too. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 😘 4y
Cinfhen Looks like a promising week 💗 4y
Cuilin Im curious about America for Beginners 🤔 love to know how that goes. 4y
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Liz_M I really liked 10:04, but the author/narrator was so hyper-local, grounding so much in Brooklyn (including my food co-op) I'm really 4y
Liz_M Really curious to hear what you think of it! 4y
Megabooks I really like Ben Lerner. 4y
BarbaraBB @Megabooks @Liz_M To be honest I tried this one before and couldn‘t get through it. I hope it will be easier this time! 4y
CarolynM I read Hotel a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Look forward to seeing your review. 4y
BarbaraBB @Liz_M I just read about that co-op! Are you a member there? It sounds so good! 4y
BarbaraBB @CarolynM I enjoyed it too. Sweet and touching without getting cheesy! 4y
Liz_M I am! It is notorious enough to have been profiled in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-grocery-store-where-produce-me... 4y
BarbaraBB @Liz_M Wow, thanks, I will read it. So you can‘t wear open toe-shoes 😀? Do you know Ben Lerner or how the storyline came into this book? 4y
Liz_M I assumed the book is closely based on the author's experiences. I don't know the author, but have probably seen him around. 😉 4y
BarbaraBB @Liz_M Very good, that article. And such a cool concept. And your have ‘probably seen him around‘. I am star struck 🤩. You see famous people probably all the time 😀 4y
BarbaraBB @Cuilin I am halfway through now. I will tag you when I‘m finished! 4y
67 likes1 stack add15 comments
review
onebigshoe
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
Pickpick

A book that you are more likely to admire than love; however, I find the writing exceptionally sharp and, at times, revelatory. Lerner has a true gift for language, but what I find most extraordinary is the overall meta conceit. We all know writers graft bits from their life to form a believable narrative, but this story illustrates the symbiotic relationship between fact and fiction more effectively than any book I‘ve read.

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Bookboss
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Pickpick

I wasn‘t crazy about Lerner‘s first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, but I liked his writing enough to try this one. His characterization of the narrator is excellent, but some of the secondary characters seem rather interchangeable. The structure is a little too Writing Workshop, but his sentences are interesting. Overall, I enjoyed the novel even if I didn‘t like the characters or the structure. It gave me something to think about.

BarbaraBB Good to know. I have this on my shelves. 4y
38 likes1 comment
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Liz_M
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Pickpick

A summary of this novel might sound too familiar - a white, male, mildly successful writer living in Brooklyn rambles around the city ruminating on life. But this novelist is a published poet and the work seems unpolished, more of a collage than a coherent story. It is also very meta with the narrator including his novel, a variation on his life that we have already seen. I was distracted by the writerly analysis of real places that I know well.

10 likes1 comment
review
Brooke_H
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Pickpick

Unnamed narrator's first novel was published to critical acclaim, but sold practically nothing. Based upon a short story he sold to a literary magazine, a big house picks up his second novel, which does not yet exist, for an exorbitant advance. The short story is about an unnamed narrator whose first novel is published to critical acclaim, but has sold practically nothing. Poetic & beautiful & meta as hell. Loved it.

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Krisjericho
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Pickpick

Deliberate, self-aware metafiction, but I mean that in the best possible way. This is meticulously crafted, and for the most part, brilliantly so. There are parts that feel like they are trying too hard, but this is nothing if not ambitious, and most of it succeeds.

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Caroline2
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Mehso-so

This is weird...one minute the writing feels profound and unique the next it's irritating and pompous like he's swallowed a thesaurus and wants to show off! 🙄 Plus it's so hard to follow what's going on as it skip back and forwards all over the place! 🤷‍♀️

TrishB Not going to top of the pile then! 6y
Caroline2 @TrishB to be fair, I am seriously sleep deprived so that prob didn't help with me struggling with the storyline! 😳 😴 6y
batsy I too found the pomposity quite annoying in another novel of his 6y
See All 6 Comments
Cinfhen So, that‘s a NO for me...thanks for the honest review ❤️ 6y
erzascarletbookgasm Oh dear, I have this on my TBR. Not touching this any time soon. 6y
ApoptyGina69 I bailed on this one as well. Glad I‘m in good company! 6y
72 likes6 comments
review
DocBrown
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
Pickpick

So I was supposed to review this book, but I ended up writing a review about another book instead. A book, ironically, about a reader who writes book reviews for his author friends because it makes him feel important. Almost like he himself was an author, which he'd wanted to be for as long as he could remember. But he never ended up writing anything except these reviews. And now he finds himself regretting the past and wistful for the future.

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Lise
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Mehso-so

Ok, so I actually enjoyed the experience of reading this, but the more I think about it, I just can't help feeling like it's not actually a very interesting book. A bit too postmodern in the tired sense, and not as clever as it thinks it is.

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Katx
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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blurb
RickMoody
10:04: A Novel | Ben Lerner
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Finally gonna get to it.

Kenny I love this book so much. I can't wait to hear what you think. 8y
GuiltyFeat I struggled with this if I'm honest. 8y
RickMoody Sure uses "craquelure" a lot! 8y
Taylor This is my book 8y
39 likes32 stack adds4 comments