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Café Loup
“I started to narrate my choking to myself, as if transforming it into a story would keep me connected to a future in which I might tell it.”
Unknown Binding
Published September 5, 2022
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About the author
Ben Lerner
69 books1,744 followersBen Lerner is an American poet, novelist, and critic. He was awarded the Hayden Carruth prize for his cycle of fifty-two sonnets, The Lichtenberg Figures. In 2004, Library Journal named it one of the year's twelve best books of poetry. The Lichtenberg Figures appeared in a German translation in 2010, for which it received the "Preis der Stadt Münster für internationale Poesie" in 2011, making Lerner the first American to receive this honor.
Born and raised in Topeka, which figures in each of his books of poetry, Lerner is a 1997 graduate of Topeka High School where he was a standout in debate and forensics. At Brown University he earned a B.A. in Political Theory and an MFA in Poetry. He traveled on a Fulbright Scholarship to Madrid, Spain in 2003 where he wrote his second book, Angle of Yaw, which was published in 2006 and was subsequently named a finalist for the National Book Award, and was selected by Brian Foley as one of the "25 important books of poetry of the 00s (2000-2009)". Lerner's third full-length poetry collection, Mean Free Path, was published in 2010.
Lerner's first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, was published by Coffee House Press in August 2011. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and New York Magazine, among other periodicals. It won the Believer Book Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for "first fiction" and the New York Public Library's Young Lions prize.
In 2008 Lerner began editing poetry for Critical Quarterly, a British academic publication. He has taught at California College of the Arts, the University of Pittsburgh, and in 2010 joined the faculty of the MFA program at Brooklyn College.
Lerner's mother is the well-known psychologist Harriet Lerner.
Born and raised in Topeka, which figures in each of his books of poetry, Lerner is a 1997 graduate of Topeka High School where he was a standout in debate and forensics. At Brown University he earned a B.A. in Political Theory and an MFA in Poetry. He traveled on a Fulbright Scholarship to Madrid, Spain in 2003 where he wrote his second book, Angle of Yaw, which was published in 2006 and was subsequently named a finalist for the National Book Award, and was selected by Brian Foley as one of the "25 important books of poetry of the 00s (2000-2009)". Lerner's third full-length poetry collection, Mean Free Path, was published in 2010.
Lerner's first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, was published by Coffee House Press in August 2011. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and New York Magazine, among other periodicals. It won the Believer Book Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for "first fiction" and the New York Public Library's Young Lions prize.
In 2008 Lerner began editing poetry for Critical Quarterly, a British academic publication. He has taught at California College of the Arts, the University of Pittsburgh, and in 2010 joined the faculty of the MFA program at Brooklyn College.
Lerner's mother is the well-known psychologist Harriet Lerner.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 17, 2022
The new Yorker will really hire anyone huh
September 17, 2022
Lerner's name sticks in my mind from the 2016 story The Polish Rider. I can see from my notes that there was another story in 2019, "Ross Perot and China," a moony tale of lost love that I found disappointing after 2016's po-mo ride. Now we have this story -- a man, father of a toddler, worries about death and meaning as he begins to choke in a cafe. It's one of those diagrams of the internal workings of a neuortic mind -- a mainstay since Roth or earlier, I suppose? -- but it remains strong on plot, and humor. I laughed out loud a couple of times, as in the scene with parents-to-be doing CPR training on plastic infants. I imagine that my husband's mind must whirl like this, in a thousand directions at once. Maybe I'll read this to him.
October 15, 2022
Dark humor cuts both ways for me although I found myself laughing out-loud at least once. The premise of the story is almost too successful at creating suspense that, at times, it was extremely uncomfortable.
Once I got over that, I was reminded of the time my therapist asked me how often I find myself living inside my head. Which was reminiscent of the opposing sensations one seeks to both achieve and avoid by going there - sinking into a warm bath, and being caught in a loop (pun intended!).
Once I got over that, I was reminded of the time my therapist asked me how often I find myself living inside my head. Which was reminiscent of the opposing sensations one seeks to both achieve and avoid by going there - sinking into a warm bath, and being caught in a loop (pun intended!).
September 24, 2022
A neurotic person chokes and has a near-death experience, especially in light of his young daughter.
Points for good writing. Subtract points since it doesn't really go anywhere.
Points for good writing. Subtract points since it doesn't really go anywhere.
October 17, 2022
Really beautiful connections between speech, mortality, love, and shame. Vivid, funny, and densely expressive.
July 9, 2023
(Having never experienced slam poetry) yeah it has like an improv slam poetry sort of vibe.
September 13, 2023
I love a good neurotic breakdown but it was a bit too...pretentious?
September 24, 2023
One of the best short stories I've ever read!
October 15, 2023
Dont get me wrong half the things I read are by eloquent and neurotic middle-aged white dudes writing about their neuroses in an eloquent and neurotic way, this one just didnt do it for me.
March 31, 2024
“my substitute religion, the “Jewish Science” of psychoanalysis”
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews