Ben Purkert — The Men Can't Be Saved - with Clint Smith
August 28, 2024
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1:03:14Now PlayingBen Purkert — The Men Can't Be Saved - with Clint Smith
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as posted by the channelWatch author Ben Purkert's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
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Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. He's the agency's hottest new star, or at least he wants his coworker crush to think so. But while he's busy drooling over his future corner office, the walls crumble around him.
When his job lets him go, he can't let go of his job. Unfortunately, one former colleague can't let him go either: Robert "Moon" McCloone, a skeezy on-the-rise exec better suited to a frat house than a boardroom. Seth tries to forget Moon and rediscover his spiritual self; he studies Kabbalah with an Orthodox rabbi by day while popping illegal prescription pills by night. But with each misstep, Seth strays farther from salvation--though he might get there, if he could only get out of his own way.
In The Men Can't Be Saved, Purkert incisively peels back the layers of the male ego, revealing what's rotten and what might be redeemed. Brimming with wit, irreverence, and soul-searching, The Men Can't Be Saved is a startlingly original examination of work, sex, addiction, religion, branding, and ourselves.
Ben Purkert is the author of the poetry collection For the Love of Endings. His work appears in The New Yorker, the Nation, and the Kenyon Review, among others. He is the founder of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He holds degrees from Harvard and New York University, and he currently teaches at Rutgers. Men Can't Be Saved is his first novel.
Purkert is joined in conversation with Clint Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and the poetry collections Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award and most recently Above Ground. His poetry collection, Above Ground, was recently published on March 28th. Smith is also the host of the YouTube series Crash Course Black American History. Born and raised in New Orleans, he currently lives in Maryland with his wife and their two children.
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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.
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