Ben Purkert examines masculinity in ‘The Men Can’t Be Saved’
While discussing his debut novel, “The Men Can’t Be Saved,” Ben Purkert quoted writer and activist Grace Paley: “You write from what you know, but you write into what you don’t know.”
Purkert — a 2007 Harvard College graduate and poet — is a former tagline copywriter, an occupation that informed his new fiction novel set in a New York City branding agency. According to Purkert, what he didn’t yet know required mediation with the complexities of modern masculinity through his protagonist, Seth Taranoff.
Seth, a junior copywriter, has a swollen head and something to prove. Despite his viral tagline and self-declared comic certainty, he is laid off and spirals, throttling himself into a period of self-reflection filled with obstacles. As Seth’s existential journey escalates, Purkert immerses his reader in the colorful advertising industry while posing questions about masculinity, work culture, and addiction.
“The Men Can’t Be Saved” debuted Tuesday, and Purkert will discuss the novel at Harvard Book
Store on Thursday at 7 p.m. with “All-Night Pharmacy” author Ruth Madievsky.
Purkert spoke to the Globe via Zoom about his novel, the trauma plot, and redefining masculinity.
Q. Are there any specific memories from your time as a copywriter that influenced your novel?
A. It was deeply traumatic to just be starting my professional life and see friends and colleagues disappearing around me. The [Great] Recession made our relationships with clients really fraught and high stakes. Everyone in was in a moment of high tension. It felt like the conditions under which fiction thrives. You need tension. I don’t think it’s interesting to write a novel about an advertising agency when things are going well. It’s much more compelling when [expletive] hits the fan.
Q. Can any part of the novel be traced back to your experiences at Harvard?
A. Seth is someone who has a considerable ego. At Harvard — and this is not necessarily excluding myself or saying that I’m better than this — there are certainly a lot of egos. There are a lot of people who take themselves very seriously. You are constantly told that your work matters, that your voice matters, that your research matters. That’s incredibly empowering, but it also potentially contributes to an inflated sense of one’s own importance. And those are conditions for comedy. I wanted to use the novel as a way of poking fun at that, particularly when it happens with men because men are more inclined to inflate their own egos. Those are always the biggest balloons.
Q. You said you edited this novel for almost a decade. How did it change throughout all those years of revision?
A. The general story line really didn’t change at all because that was the part of the book I believed in the most. What did change a lot was polishing the sentences and really trying to get the right level of backstory for a character like Seth. There was this article about the trauma plot and the way characters are given a traumatic background so that we become invested in them as readers. That is not my character. It’s not as if there’s some deep dark secret that he’s hiding, and that’s why we should care about him. He’s more of a blank canvas, but I did revise to give a bit more color to the emotional baggage that he’s carrying.
Q. Why did you choose to write about masculinity?
A. Masculinity is terrain that is familiar. I’m really interested in the ways in which men are currently in a place of crisis. After reading some recent think pieces about the loneliness epidemic in men and the suicide epidemic, there just seems to be something broken about masculinity at the moment. My main character is obsessed with becoming a partner at his agency. That’s all he thinks about day and night. If he could be a bit more honest with himself, he would realize that what he really lacks is partnership, in the sense of camaraderie, closeness, and intimacy. Even vulnerability. These are not things we commonly associate with masculinity. The archetype of masculinity that I grew up with was antithetical to those things. Being the lone soldier or the rugged individual is often really lonely. My main character has to think through some of that.
Q. The title of your novel sounds like you, or maybe you and Seth, have come to a conclusion. What have you come to terms with regarding masculinity while writing this book?
A. Seth’s aims in life have been informed by this notion of masculinity that hinges on independent success, rugged individualism, being tough, and being the winner. As long as the common conception of masculinity reinforces those habits, I’m not sure that masculinity in that form is something salvageable. But to me, that’s not nihilistic; that’s hopeful. What could men look like if that weight of masculinity were stripped away? What would it look like if we could be more vulnerable and open?
I’m a poet first. From a very young age, when someone would ask what I love to do, I’d say, “I love to write poetry. I’m a poet.” It was always interesting to watch people’s faces because people often seemed uncomfortable or like they didn’t expect that kind of response. Because to say that you’re a poet is to admit to a certain level of sensitivity and vulnerability that I was not supposed to have. I’m interested in alternatives. I think that men certainly can save themselves, but it starts with a reckoning. Maybe rethinking masculinity is a place to start.
For more information on the event, visit harvard.com.