The Topeka School

The Topeka School is a literary novel published by Ben Lerner in 2019. Lerner, an acclaimed writer and a winner of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2015, is well-known for his poetry and his novels. His novels are often referred to as “autofiction,” due to the fact that they feature fictionalized versions of himself and other figures from his life. The Topeka School was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

This guide follows the paperback edition of The Topeka School published in 2020.

Plot Summary

The Topeka School is separated into chapters that focus on the perspectives of its three main characters: Adam, a teenager in Topeka, and his parents, Jonathan and Jane, who are psychologists at Topeka’s famous psychoanalytical institution, called the Foundation. While the Adam chapters are primarily in the third person, the chapters on Jane and Jonathan are in the first person. Between these chapters are short, third-person sections that follow Darren, an intellectually disabled student at Adam’s high school.

The book opens with Adam riding a boat late at night with his girlfriend Amber. Amber abandons Adam and swims to shore, interrupting Adam telling her how he feels about her. The following day, Adam has to compete in a local debating tournament. Adam is a skillful and talented competitive debater, particularly due to his ability to rapidly deliver evidence in support of his arguments—a practice known as the “spread.”

The book then switches to Adam’s parents. Jonathan and Jane first met as students in graduate school, where Jonathan performed research on a phenomenon known as speech shadowing, in which individuals repeat text that they hear in a tape recorder. At the Foundation, Jonathan often treats local teenage boys, who suffer from malaise and depression despite the relative ease of their lives.

Jane also works as a psychologist at the Foundation. She achieves national acclaim for a bestselling self-help book. However, the book’s success leads to Jane receiving numerous threatening and misogynistic phone calls from anonymous men. The novel explores Jane’s history of sexual assault by her father, which Jane is only able to recall in therapy with Sima, her friend and colleague. Sima and Jane’s intimate and close friendship splinters following Jane’s success and a trip both take to New York with their families.

Interspersed through these chapters is the story of Darren. Though Darren has been ostracized and bullied by his schoolmates for most of his life, he begins to get invited to parties and social events in his schoolmate’s senior year. At one party, freshman Mandy Owens insults an intoxicated Darren. In a rage, Darren picks up a billiard cue ball and throws it Mandy’s face, causing serious damage and permanently altering her ability to speak.

Adam participates in the national debate championship at the end of his senior year. The deeply conservative Peter Evanson coaches Adam in extemporaneous speaking, or extemp, a category in debate championships where participants must spontaneously speak about a randomly chosen political topic. After winning the championship, Adam returns to Topeka, where he visits his grandfather and attends the party where Darren attacks Mandy.

Jane and Jonathan’s romantic relationship suffers after Jane’s book success. Jonathan develops an intimate friendship with Sima, who also feels frustration with Jane and with her own husband Eric. While Jonathan and Sima initially resist acting on their attraction, they become romantically involved during their families’ trip to New York. Jonathan confesses his infidelity to Jane during a fight to see Adam compete in the debate championship. Jane feels deeply alienated by his betrayal.

The book’s final chapter sees Adam as an adult, living in New York City following Trump’s election. Though the previous chapters about Adam were in the third person, this one is in the first person. Adam describes being a father for two young girls, and his ambivalence about the traditional masculine roles associated with fatherhood. In the book’s final scene, Adam and his family attend a protest against ICE deportations of undocumented families.