Transcription, a novel by Ben Lerner

I just finished this short novel (maybe 40,000 words in 130 pages) that’s been hailed as one of the first books to take on the issue of dependence on our phones. But it also addresses relationships and provides “dreamlike” narratives. From the Amazon introduction:

“The narrator of Ben Lerner’s new novel has traveled to Providence, Rhode Island, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor and the father of his college friend Max. Thomas is a giant in the arts who seems to hail “from the future and the past simultaneously” and who “reenchants the air” when he speaks. But the narrator drops his smartphone in the hotel sink. He arrives at Thomas’s house with no recording device, a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess.”

So the interviewer pretends to record the interview but in reality simply writes the story from memory of the interview, for which he is roundly criticized when he makes public presentations about the now deceased artist. In the middle of the book we get into Max’s daughter who suffered from an eating disorder and tour the various approaches they used to ‘cure’ her, none of which really worked, at least not better than time passing which made her more mature and she started eating – with all the parent’s attempts seemingly moot. This feels completely real, as if Lerner had such an experience in reality. Not sure why it’s otherwise in the book.  

We get the full treatment of the artist’s verbal talents, and we get to see his rapid moving mind. Brilliant and intelligent at once, he often doesn’t listen to what’s being asked of him or if he does hear, he may well just argue that it’s the wrong thing to bring up. We also see his failing memory and while not full-blown Alzheimer’s, it is a form of dementia. So from my perspective as a writer, this character – the artist – takes center stage. The narrative voice may be a narrator, or it may be the artist’s son Max. I’m not always sure and could figure it out but am not going back to do so since, at the end of the day, and with reference to this book, the artist is the most interesting element – very interesting – and the rest is sometimes without purpose in my mind. Ok, the girl and eating problems are clinical and important, but not to the novel itself. So I may review the artist’s monologues and soliloquies he brings us since they are both entertaining and meaningful to a work of fiction.

I do think it’s worth reading simply because it can be done in one sitting. But my strong recommendation is to wait a year or so and buy a used version since my pre-publication price was $25 and not worth that. Electronic copies may be economically priced.

I know I blaspheme since Lerner is hailed as a leading novelist, and maybe I need to read his Pulitzer finalist novel, The Topeka School, (just ordered it) before I say more.

So the bottom line on Translation is that its good to read if you can avoid paying top dollar since I did not get $25 worth of pleasure or insightful fiction out of it. Maybe $10. And all that is attributable to Lerner’s ‘artist’ who is at the center of the story but maybe not given a young girl with eating disorder. I’m confused as to what Lerner is trying to accomplish…