On the Verge of (Not?) Expiring: Urban and Narrative Rearrangements in Ben Lerner’s 10:04

This article sets out to explore Ben Lerner’s 10:04 (2014) and the representation of New York City’s space through the notions of expiration as well as the constant spatial and temporal rearrangements that take place within the novel’s confines. In 10:04, temporality is multiplied as the past, present, and future are entwined and inform one another while being linked to New York’s urban environment. In the city, the traumas of the past, either personal or communal, meet the precarious moments of the present, characterized by environmental threats which eventually render the future uncertain. Building upon Ben Highmore’s metaphor of the city as a body, the article portrays and elaborates on a distinct image of New York. From this space and metaphor-oriented point of view, the article approaches 10:04 through a spatio-temporal spectrum, treating the city of New York as a major protagonist and revealing the textures of the 2010’s urban condition. As the narrative continues to unravel, the spatial and temporal rearrangements that occur in the novel are accompanied by rearrangements in the page-space. Stories that are embedded within the main narrative tend to disrupt its linearity, creating new narrative spaces and showcasing the novel’s ontological multidimensionality. The feelings of expiration and rearrangement prove to be the definitive factors that delineate the novel’s three major elements: temporality, spatiality, and narrative.