Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' Novel Explores Memory and Fiction During COVID-19

Ben Lerner's novel 'Transcription' unfolds through three conversations set against the COVID-19 pandemic backdrop. The narrative structure resembles a sonata, with chapters revisiting themes from new perspectives. A protagonist interviews his aging mentor Thomas, argues with a curator after a memorial lecture, and converses with Thomas's son Max. These interactions reveal crossed wires and intergenerational complexities. Lerner's previous works—'Leaving the Atocha Station' (2011), '10:04' (2014), and 'The Topeka School' (2019)—explored America in the 2010s through autofiction. 'Transcription' uses the interview format to question memory and fiction as record. The first chapter features a broken phone, leading to unrecorded, fragmentary musings from Thomas about the Nature Theater of Omaha and cosmic elements. Lerner examines how technology rewires consciousness, with prose attuned to cellular cravings. Historical sweep spans from 1930s Germany, where Thomas's earliest memory is Hitler's voice on radio, to a granddaughter's COVID-era childhood marked by school refusal and iPad addiction. The novel, published by Granta Books, is available in hardcover for £14.99.