A review by definebookish
The Idiot, by Elif Batuman

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

4.0

I can’t deny that part of the reason Selin, the narrator of Elif Batuman’s Pulitzer-shortlisted The Idiot, resonates with me so much is that we’re contemporaries.

I wasn’t at Harvard, but like her, my first email account was the one assigned to me when I arrived at university. Like her, I developed intense friendships almost entirely through email that year that people not using email didn’t really understand.

I’m sure The Idiot is also relatable on a somewhat wider level – if you’ve ever been that clever but clueless eighteen-year-old arriving at university, searching for meaning and finding out that the more you learn, you less you know about anything.

I’ve read mixed reviews of this one, and while I loved reading it, even while loving it I could see it as that other book that people who didn’t love it were reading, if I squinted. It is slow and sometimes stilted. Selin is taking a class in Russian, and there’s something about The Idiot that feels like a slightly awkward translation – a distance that comes with that. But I found it charming, and I loved its relentlessly meandering introspection. And it’s straight-up hilarious at times, in a stealthy deadpan way that left me a little surprised every time I realised I’d laughed out loud.

*This would’ve been a five star read for me, but for an instance of throwaway Roma stereotyping towards the end, which I’m knocking off a star for. Hey, I don’t make the rules. (I make the rules.)
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