Autofiction guides a rare talent down a literary cul-de-sac

FICTION

The Topeka School

By Ben Lerner

Granta, €16.45

Storytellers are in the business of rhetoric – the art of persuasion. But rhetoric is also the field on which fiction clashes with politics. Get Brexit Done. Make America Great Again. What is the difference between a novelist’s attempts to persuade us of the truth of her story, and a politician’s attempts to persuade us to vote for him?

Rhetoric is the subject of Ben Lerner’s ...