New Uses for Failure
Ben Lerner’s 10:04
By Adam Colman
How (and Why) to Write Fiction Like an Essayist
A brave new mode of literature has been emerging in the work of Sheila Heti, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and others. Call it what you will; Adam Colman calls it essayistic fiction. In this sharp, playful book, Colman dives deep into Ben Lerner’s 10:04 to create a “how to” manual for anyone who wants to write, or simply understand, essayistic fiction. A manifesto, a critical analysis, and a winking work of satire, New Uses for Failure marks the arrival of a sparkling new genre.
Interview at Chicago Review of Books
“Adam Colman writes about writing with a unique take on literature and in a fresh voice. His criticism is lively, witty, and has an engaging style more usually seen in a novel. Colman is a thoughtful narrator of his ideas, and a playful reader: he approaches Ben Lerner’s writing on its terms, and on his own. New Uses for Failure is calling for a different kind of criticism, in which its writer is self-conscious and knows himself/herself to be unreliable, also. Bravo!”
— Lynne Tillman
Adam Colman has written for The Believer, KCRW and McSweeney’s Organist podcast, The Nervous Breakdown, and more. His book on the origins of the addiction aesthetic is forthcoming from Palgrave Macmillan.
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