The Idiot Book Review
- The Choate Piggy
- Jan 29, 2019
- 1 min read
Book title: The Idiot
Author: Elif Batuman
The daughter of Turkish immigrants who raised her in New Jersey, Selin begins her first year at Harvard. She experiences freshman classes—the most influential being linguistics—bonds with her talkative classmate Svetlana, and meets Ivan, an older mathematics student with whom she begins to correspond via email. Ivan consumes Selin’s thoughts, and his erratic behavior and perplexing words often make her spiral into a sea of questions. With the random content and irregularity that characterizes their email correspondence, it is easy to become annoyed, frustrated, and confused. But when you yourself become so invested in the life taking place on a page, I believe that it is the mark of good writing.
When the school year comes to a close, Selin travels to Hungary to teach English in small villages, as Ivan heads off on his own summer adventure to Japan and Budapest. Selin begins to discover herself without Ivan’s physical presence, but with his influence still existent.
I found the interactions between Selin and Ivan completely confusing, but somehow Elif Batuman connects seemingly random events and conversations to create a comprehensive story. Maybe in my state of confusion I missed the meaning of some interactions, but I still felt an immense gratitude to the author for creating characters who shared such profound realizations as they navigated their journeys.
Verdict: A story of self discovery, influence, and first love, The Idiot is beautifully confusing, and its requirement of analysis is exactly the quality that made me want to keep reading.
Reviewed by: Caroline Rispoli‘20
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