I enjoyed reading Elif Batuman’s quirky and humorous memoir of her Stanford University graduate student days in The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. You can read my review here. So I thought I might like Elif Batuman’s new novel, The Idiot. It’s the story of a Harvard University freshman named Selin in the mid-1990s who deals with her unusual roommates, the new phenomenon of email, and her academic courses. Of course, Selin develops a crush on a senior. They start to exchange weird emails. In fact, for a good chunk of The Idiot Selin is either waiting for an email or writing emails trying to figure out the object of her affections. This goes on for 423 pages. Yes, there are moments of humor. I especially liked the bizarre story Selin and her fellow students in her Russian class try to decipher. Elif Batuman wrote this novel 17 years ago and then “tweaked” it for this publication. Not a good result. GRADE: C
Wow. You’d think she’d have had the sense so many successful writers do, to leave the early apprentice work in the bottom drawer where it belongs rather than expose it to the light of day, and possibly critical ridicule. Or her family or friends should have told her so.
Jeff, THE IDIOT is an example of “Student Lit” where the process of going to college classes and interacting with other students is supposed to hold our attention. My attention kept slipping away.
I was just thinking of how different email has made my life. I just reconnected with a college friend I hadn’t been in touch with for over 30 years. She actually is less techy than I am and doesn’t have email. We can kind of divide people in our lives by before and after email.
I agree with Jeff, why publish this now?
Maggie, I assume Elif Batuman thought her story of a Harvard freshman in the 1990s would make scintillating reading.
Nah, not anything I’d bother with.
Rick, just think…I could have been reading another faux-Lovecraftean novel instead of THE IDIOT!
That would have suited you better, my friend.
Rick, I try to diversify my reading, but sometimes I read a clunker.
The title should have warned you off.
Bob, I assumed THE IDIOT was a reference to the Dostoevsky novel.
Bob Lefsetz who is well known in the pop music business and whose “rantings” I really like wrote about the bookand kind of recommended it too:
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
Wolf, thanks for the link. THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW gave THE IDIOT a positive review, too. But, THE IDIOT didn’t connect with me.