10:04 was like 60% brilliant, 40% insufferable. It has no real plot — things happen, characters respond — but it’s primarily about relationships, art, authenticity and taking risks. It’s very meta: the narrator (named Ben) is working on his second novel. I don’t know enough about Ben Lerner (the author) to know how much more of himself is in (Ben) the character, but I suspect it’s plenty.

Lerner can be poetic and profound, and he frequently is in this book. Single moments spiral out into long digressions about past relationships, ideas about humanity, historical trivia, and all kinds of other things, and when it works, it’s fantastic.

When it doesn’t, it’s pretentious and precious. I skipped several long paragraphs toward the end of this book rather than force myself to puzzle out his winding sentences and ten-cent words. I wasn’t happy to do it, but he’d worn me down by that point (and the book isn’t even 250 pages long!).

On the other hand, there’s a scene in a fertility clinic that reads like a classic Seinfeld bit; there’s a long section of poetry near the end that hasn’t left my mind in the day and a half since I finished the book; there are ideas and ways of looking at the world (and at Back to the Future) that I’ll never forget.

I wouldn’t characterize this as a positive reading experience, but I also feel like I benefitted from it. I’m unsure if this means I should or shouldn’t seek out Lerner’s other books, though I’ve been told I should. Have you read it? Did you feel this way? How does this compare to his other books?

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