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bibliobrandie's review against another edition
3.0
Elif Batuman takes you along on her harrowing journey as she contemplates and works towards a Phd in Russian Literature. Part travel memoir (someone is always willing to pay for her travel plans) and part Russian Lit, it was a lot less about Russian Appreciation than I thought I'd get from a book with a subtitle: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. Still I enjoyed Batuman's writing and will definitely pick up her novel.
zalkacs's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I really enjoyed most of the essays, except the ones about Samarkand, which read as kind of whiny and unlikable.
finalgirlfall's review against another edition
3.0
i remember finding this book strange, and also having to reckon with my attachment to batuman's first novel upon realizing that it was semi-autobiographical.
naliterary's review against another edition
3.0
I read The Idiot and realized that I enjoy being inside of Elif Batuman's head. She's always surprising me, always probing and questioning, and always pointing out the strangeness of being a person interacting with other people in remarkably clever and funny ways. I found the portion of the book in Samarkand dragged for me, and perhaps if I was less interested in Russian literature and the study of literature and theory I wouldn't have enjoyed the book as much as I did. 3 stars!
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"Experiences like these help to convince Batuman, who started out wanting to be a novelist, that the academic study of literature is not the end of literary pleasure, but a new, deeper beginning... Beyond all the jokes, this may be the most important contribution Batuman has to make in The Possessed. By fusing memoir and criticism, she shows how the life of literary scholarship is really lived—at its most ridiculous, and at its most unexpectedly sublime." - Adam Kirsch, Slate
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"Experiences like these help to convince Batuman, who started out wanting to be a novelist, that the academic study of literature is not the end of literary pleasure, but a new, deeper beginning... Beyond all the jokes, this may be the most important contribution Batuman has to make in The Possessed. By fusing memoir and criticism, she shows how the life of literary scholarship is really lived—at its most ridiculous, and at its most unexpectedly sublime." - Adam Kirsch, Slate
gareth_beniston's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
If the book had carried on as brilliantly as it started - with Issac Babel - it would be a favourite book, but it is a little uneven with some less interesting passages. Still, fantastic, funny, informative and inspiring. Watch/listen to her in interviews/podcasts. She is kind, fiercely intelligent and winningly reflective and articulate. I'm gonna read her novels now.
sentientvinegar's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked the parts that felt more memoir-y, and it was fun to see which parts of The Idiot and Either/Or were based on true stories. But if you’re not either super into Russian literature or obsessed with Elif Batuman, I would skip it.