Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Either/Or

It's interesting to read a second Elif Batuman book several years after reading The Idiot, when I have a much more strongly developed sense of self and can find myself disagreeing with a lot of the things the main character says or thinks. Most of Batuman's works are at least partially autobiographical, and I get the sense that she herself no longer feels or thinks the way she did about certain topics. The notes at the end of the book slap, don't skip those.

Content Warnings

astoriareader's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

1.0

MY THOUGHTS

I blindly went into this book, as I kept seeing praise & good reviews for it. Apparently, it’s a sequel.
This book DRAGS at such a slow pace. It also is not structured well, and it has extremely long chapters.
Pedantic, pretentious. No idea why so many college lectures & quotes from other books are in this??
Felt absolutely no connection to the main character.
Tries to be a coming-of-age story if a Harvard student in her sophomore year.
I have no idea how I finished this book.
This is the most boring fictional book that I’ve read.

TL;DR: ⭐️this took me 9 days to finish 😂i usually fly through books. the most boring fictional book that i’ve ever read.

Content Warnings

theabee's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Oh Selin.

Content Warnings

gingerfoot's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny sad fast-paced

4.25

Content Warnings

karabeavis's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I struggled with this one. On the one hand, the writing is incredible, and sure. Phrases like “the tap coughed” are brilliant and stuck in my mind. It’s set in Harvard and the ins and outs of a peer group of talented, precocious students from all over the world: this should be an interesting premise.

I found the book excruciating at times. For me, the main character is hard to identify with and have empathy for. Despite having a cool mum who is a no—nonsense doctor, in regular contact, the protagonist is hapless, and

Spoiler

the sex she finally has is absolutely awful. There doesn’t seem to be a single pleasurable encounter. Pleasure doesn’t come into it. The character is totally neurotic, an American thing I observe in American sitcoms etc. It’s hard to like her.

. It’s set in the 1990s — my adolescent period too. This character is empowered in some ways but also naive! She wants to live a little, which is the point of the last third of the book.

Back to the writing which is layer upon layer of cultural literature references: the book is thoroughly researched and clever. I loved the description of Selin’s time spent at her grandmother’s house in Turkey.

Overall highly esoteric and inwardly gazing. I like the sophisticated world the character moves in, but at the same time, I loathe it. I wanted to love this. there’s a buzz around it and many adore it!

Content Warnings

moonbeamreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

Big tw: rape and dubious consent regarding most of the sex scenes

Content Warnings

lybe's review against another edition

Go to review page

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I enjoyed The Idiot but this just fell flat. Batuman's extraordinary humour that was such a big contribution to why its predecessor was and is so popular is still there (and I did laugh out loud several times, thank you very much) but the novel as a whole feels tedious and lacklustre. Batuman's interviews surrounding its publication were truly interesting but those ideas and concepts are just murmuring around in the background and rarely ever transpire superficially in a naïve (American?) way.
I would have most likely DNF'd this if I hadn't been listening to the audiobook.

Spoiler

The amount of mostly unreflected r*p* scenes in this? What's with that?

Content Warnings

More...