The first phase of my research involved waking up weekday mornings in a barely furnished attic apartment, the first apartment I'd looked at after arriving in Madrid, or letting myself be woken by the noise from La Plaza Santa Ana, failing to assimilate that noise fully into my dream, then putting on the rusty stovetop espresso machine and rolling a spliff while I waited for the coffee.
...is the beginning of Ben Lerner's Leaving The Atocha Station.
I heard some buzz about this when it came out a few years ago (2011) and mentally put it on my it might be interesting list. But I recently realized the Atocha station is the main Madrid train station (Vacation in Spain coming up. Yay!) I thought I'd try it.
Ben Lerner wrote a couple of books of poetry but this is his first novel. (There's now a second.) I haven't read anything of his before this. I'm not much beyond that sentence at the moment, but I suppose it sets the picture: impoverished student-y ex-pat life. It's a short novel, and it even has pictures, so I suppose I'll finish it soon. Anybody know this one?
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