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caroisreading's review
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book took me about 100 pages to finally "get it" -- to relax, read this with levity, to stop being so annoyed by our narrator or the abstruse references. I even needed some moments to pick my jaw off the floor from shockingly racist situations, and try to accept it's all part of the agenda in "The Idiot."
Selin is a freshman at Harvard, and incredibly awkward and genuinely dumb about things, as most teens are. She floats in and out of situations dictated by her classes, her mom, her roommates, her friends, and her developing crush on Ivan, a fellow student. The way she just lets things happen to her, and tries to formulate what's happening in her head, it's so incredibly funny.
The parts that were lost on me were any involving Ivan. I related to the first-love obsession. But all humor was gone for me in these scenes, and Selin was a shell of herself, reduced to pining and repetitive thoughts. Also, don't come for me, but Svetlana annoyed me to no end.
Elif Batuman writes such a perfect representation of a 19yo's inner thoughts, a superficial level of elitism, confidence and borrowed intelligence, absolutely humbled and reset by life and love.
You'll enjoy this if you appreciate funny, intellectual reads, awkward narrators, and don't need plots or "satisfying" endings.
Selin is a freshman at Harvard, and incredibly awkward and genuinely dumb about things, as most teens are. She floats in and out of situations dictated by her classes, her mom, her roommates, her friends, and her developing crush on Ivan, a fellow student. The way she just lets things happen to her, and tries to formulate what's happening in her head, it's so incredibly funny.
The parts that were lost on me were any involving Ivan. I related to the first-love obsession. But all humor was gone for me in these scenes, and Selin was a shell of herself, reduced to pining and repetitive thoughts. Also, don't come for me, but Svetlana annoyed me to no end.
Elif Batuman writes such a perfect representation of a 19yo's inner thoughts, a superficial level of elitism, confidence and borrowed intelligence, absolutely humbled and reset by life and love.
You'll enjoy this if you appreciate funny, intellectual reads, awkward narrators, and don't need plots or "satisfying" endings.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Excrement and Racism
wasabby's review
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The first half of the book is focused on Selin, a freshman at Harvard, going through the machinations of college life. If the whole book was set up like this, I think it'd be easier to like it. Unfortunately, at the halfway mark, the book devolves into a strange grooming scenario between Selin and a senior/grad student. When you combine that with the sheer amount of casual racism, literal slurs, *acknowledgement* of the slurs and yet the continued use of them, the constant antisemitism the book somehow always finds a way to come back to... it's not a good book. It glorifies a predatory dynamic between a young woman and a man too old to be dating an 18 year old. It doesn't criticize the lack of empathy Selin feels for those around her. Characters in the book are often devoid of any real personality beyond "the black roommate" and "the friend of a friend who has a girlfriend in a wheelchair." Also just a lot of strange sexual content. If any of that's not your cup of tea, I'd avoid reading this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Excrement, Emotional abuse, War, Alcoholism, Classism, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Racism, Addiction, Child death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Ableism, Body shaming, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Xenophobia
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