The Topeka School is, like all of Ben Lerner's novels, a highly self-referential book. It nominally tells the story of a character called Adam Gordon, who is coming to the end of a high school career marked by the kind of male culture which, if the last few years have shown us anything, should best be described as toxic. What marks the novel out however is that under the thin veil of Adam Gordon, Lerner is describing his own experience as a teenager in the America of the early 2000s; the character mapping perfectly onto Lerner's own life.

Since the beginnings of the #metoo movement, relatively few male novelists have successfully looked at their behaviour in a way that may help to advance the debate. For me, Lerner, with his stark, self-critical honesty, is one of the few who have. Not only that (and I realise this seems improbable) but it is also a joy to read with Lerner's poetic abilities enriching his prose and even adding some humour to a treatment of a very serious subject.

Dussmann verkauft Kultur und begreift sich als Kultur, muss sich somit jedoch auch Kulturkritik stellen. Eine der einflussreichsten kulturtheoretischen und kulturkritischen Schriften verfasste Sigmund Freud bereits im Jahr 1930. Die Arbeit gehört sicherlich mit zu seinen wichtigsten Werken. Wer wissen möchte was (nach Freud) Kultur mit Unlust zu tun hat und welchen Preis wir für kultureller Fortschritt zahlen, der sollte dieses Buch ganz oben auf den eigenen Lesestapel legen.