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A review by gracescanlon
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
Yawn.
The main character, Selin, could be interesting — there are moments in the book that mirror Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. However, unlike Dostoyevsky’s work, Batuman’s version lacks any emotion from the main character and evokes none in the reader. Selin tells and tells us every tiny detail of her freshman year at university, without expounding upon anything interesting about it, if she mentions anything interesting at all.
I struggled with how Selin got into Harvard, as I didn’t see any evidence of particular intelligence, talent, or originality that would’ve made her an attractive applicant to the university. She was naive and literal, and so passive that unless the book contained major character growth or even some kind of character arc, it was bound to be dull — a whole lot of nothing in too many words.
The main character, Selin, could be interesting — there are moments in the book that mirror Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. However, unlike Dostoyevsky’s work, Batuman’s version lacks any emotion from the main character and evokes none in the reader. Selin tells and tells us every tiny detail of her freshman year at university, without expounding upon anything interesting about it, if she mentions anything interesting at all.
I struggled with how Selin got into Harvard, as I didn’t see any evidence of particular intelligence, talent, or originality that would’ve made her an attractive applicant to the university. She was naive and literal, and so passive that unless the book contained major character growth or even some kind of character arc, it was bound to be dull — a whole lot of nothing in too many words.