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A review by andipants
My Education by Susan Choi
2.0
This was a lot more capital-L-Literary than my usual fare, but even adjusting expectations for that, the ratio of navel-gazing to actual insight and character development was way too high here. Regina comes off as ridiculously thoughtless and self-centered, and no indication is given by the end of the book that she's grown or learned anything from her experiences. Nicholas is one-note and pathetic, and Martha comes off as short-sighted and manipulative. The most interesting character to me was Dutra, but he was treated more as a plot tool than a character, and never got any real depth.
And perhaps it's just a sign of the difference between the early 90s and today, but I was flabbergasted at how Regina could put forth seemingly no effort at succeeding in life and still end up as successful as she did — it made me wonder how much support she was getting from her never-mentioned parents, and just gave the distinct impression of a spoiled kid who's never had to work for much at all. It also irritated me that the major event sending her into a spiral of life-threatening alcoholism and depression was that her fling with a married woman didn't pan out into something permanent. Like, how delusional do you have to be? Get some real problems.
On a technical level, the writing was sometimes lovely, but often overwrought, and the entire last third of the book seemed pointless. There is no character growth to demonstrate, so we just get middle-aged people angsting about their younger lives and a clumsy 9/11 narrative tossed in for no apparent reason. Meh.
And perhaps it's just a sign of the difference between the early 90s and today, but I was flabbergasted at how Regina could put forth seemingly no effort at succeeding in life and still end up as successful as she did — it made me wonder how much support she was getting from her never-mentioned parents, and just gave the distinct impression of a spoiled kid who's never had to work for much at all. It also irritated me that the major event sending her into a spiral of life-threatening alcoholism and depression was that her fling with a married woman didn't pan out into something permanent. Like, how delusional do you have to be? Get some real problems.
On a technical level, the writing was sometimes lovely, but often overwrought, and the entire last third of the book seemed pointless. There is no character growth to demonstrate, so we just get middle-aged people angsting about their younger lives and a clumsy 9/11 narrative tossed in for no apparent reason. Meh.