Reviews

banger first line and ending line. it's like the perfect sandwich.

first line: "I didn't know what email was until I got to college."
last line (actually, paragraph): "When I got back to school in the fall, I changed my major from linguistics and didn't take any more classes in the philosophy or psychology of language. They had let me down. I hadn't learned what I had wanted to about how language worked. I hadn't learned anything, at all."

i try to understand this story to be how selin, the narrator, reflects upon the beginning of her life in university. she tries to balance between dreaming big and feeling small, which i think batuman expresses articulately; to put it simply, selin hopes to become a writer—and she studies in an ivy league—but she gets jaded somewhere around the middle. coming-of-age is messy and is not often what the media emphasizes. it was so refreshing to read because it's exactly what i had felt upon my freshman year in university. absolutely worth the read, even beyond college life.

ingrid_kocher's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

"I kept thinking about the uneven quality of time--the way it was almost always so empty, and then with no warning came a few days that felt so dense and alive and real that it seemed indisputable that that was what life was, that its real nature had finally been revealed. But then time passed and unthinkably grew dead again, and it turned out that that fullness had been an aberration and might never come back."

etanner3's review

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I think that this was a great book… but just not for me. Maybe I’m the idiot or maybe I’m just not sophisticated for a book like this that practically screams elitist but I had an extremely difficult time dragging myself to the end. Selin was a great character and there were many parts of her that identified with. I think her naivety is very relatable for many young women entering college. I also very much enjoyed all of the commentary on what it takes to be a writer and the ways in which Selin approached her calling. The character development was subtly stated, but strong nonetheless and I was proud of her in the end.

All of that being said, the pace was much slower than what I desired and the density information presented on her every day life made the last quarter of the book feel like a crawl.

Again, I think the style was impeccable, the voice and tone were spot on, but I just don’t think it was in my taste.