THE TOPEKA SCHOOL by Ben Lerner

I like a challenging novel, but this book was just too cerebral for me—literally, since two of the three main characters are psychotherapists.  The third character is their son Adam, a high school senior who excels at various types of debate that I have never heard of.  These three characters rotate as narrators, along with Darren, a troubled, learning-disabled teen who is occasionally included in various teenage outings but then derided and/or abandoned, so that his violent response is not exactly unexpected.  He himself seems unable to distinguish between what he has thought about doing and what he has actually done.  Adam also has some trippy imaginings, not to mention migraines, which may or may not stem from a concussion he suffered when he was eight years old.  One particularly intriguing section involves an argument between Adam’s parents as to whether his mother should give in to Adam’s request for one of her tranquilizers before the national championship debate.  Adam’s father’s vehement objection to the possibility of his wife drugging their son is particularly ironic, since we already know that Adam’s father had a bad LSD trip while visiting a museum.  Another compelling event is when Adam becomes unglued after finding out that his girlfriend, living in Europe—country unspecified—has moved in with another guy.  This storyline ends abruptly, leaving me to wonder about its resolution, which is partially revealed at the end.  In fact, throughout this book, I kept wondering if I had missed some important tidbit, and I probably did, as this book has no coherent plot as such.  Just as I would become engrossed in one particularl scene, it would end, and another would begin.  Bottom line:  This book held my attention, but it was ultimately very exasperating.