Can the men be saved? (If not, can we laugh about it?)

"What do our jobs do to our souls?"

That is the big question asked in the debut novel of Ben Purkert called The Men Can’t Be Saved. Following a junior copywriter in New York City whose latest tagline went viral, the novel is a witty, comedic exploration of what it means to be a man in a modern context, unpacking both overt and subtle expressions of toxic masculinity and examining themes like work, religion, sex, drugs, and our selves, in between.

In this conversation, Ben and Dave discuss...

• Why it was so difficult to make the switch from poetry writing to long-form fiction storytelling
• Ben's relationship to his identity as a man and masculinity, especially as a long-time poet
• The author's aspirations for his first novel—and why HBO's Succession is his gold standard for dramatic comedy

Ben Purkert is a poet and novelist whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Slate, and beyond. He is the founder of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He holds degrees from Harvard and NYU and currently teaches creative writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

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