The Idiot (Batuman novel) explained

The Idiot
Author:Elif Batuman
Language:English
Release Date:March 2017
Isbn:978-1-59420-561-3
Followed By:Either/Or

The Idiot (2017) is the semi-autobiographical first novel by the Turkish American writer Elif Batuman. It is a bildungsroman, and concerns a college freshman, Selin, attending Harvard University in the 1990s.[1] [2] [3]

Plot

Selin Karadağ is a freshman studying linguistics at Harvard University. She meets an older Hungarian mathematics student, Ivan, in a Russian language class and the two begin corresponding over email, and occasionally spend time together in person. While Selin and Ivan at times seem interested in each other romantically, neither know how and when to express their feelings. The summer after her freshman year, Selin travels to Paris with her college friend Svetlana, and then to Hungary to teach English in a remote village, a job she accepts partly to be closer to Ivan. At the end of the summer, Selin returns to Harvard and Ivan goes to California to pursue graduate mathematics.[4] [5]

Reception

The Idiot was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction.[6] According to the literary review aggregator Book Marks, the novel received mostly positive reviews.[7] Writing for The New York Times, Dwight Garner describes how "Each paragraph is a small anthology of well-made observations."[8] However, Garner ultimately describes the protagonist, Selin, as "an interesting human who, very much like this wry but distant novel, never becomes an enveloping one." Conversely, Annalisa Quinn of NPR asserts that "The Idiot encapsulates those years of humiliating, but vibrant, confusion the come in your late teens, a confusion that's not even sexual, but existential and practical".[9] Quinn concludes by noting that, "The Idiot is both boring and strangely intense, fraught and apparently meaningless, confusing and inevitable, endless — and over in a moment."[10] Vox gave the novel 3.5 stars out of 5, with reviewer Constance Grady noting that "the atmosphere at the heart of The Idiot is one of linguistic alienation, when the distance between what words say and what they mean seems insurmountable."[11] Grady further describes how "the heartbreak that ensues is slightly melancholy, but it’s not overwhelming: The Idiot doesn’t bring you in close enough for that. It keeps you far enough away that you have to pay more attention to its words than to the emotions that they’re describing."

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Both Pointless And Playful, 'The Idiot' Is Like A Long Dream. Quinn. Annalisa. 18 March 2017. NPR. 10 April 2017.
  2. Web site: Review: Elif Batuman's 'The Idiot' Sets a Romantic Crush on Simmer. Garner. Dwight. 28 February 2017. The New York Times. 10 April 2017.
  3. News: Elif Batuman's 'The Idiot'. Margolin. Elaine. 1 March 2017. The Washington post. 20 March 2019.
  4. Web site: Mind your Suffixes: On the Turkish Themes in The Idiot, Elif Batuman. Eller. Erica. Bosphorus Review of Books. 9 June 2019.
  5. Web site: Elif Batuman Has Learned Nothing at All: On 'The Idiot'. Marshall. Virginia. 14 March 2017 . The Millions. 9 June 2019.
  6. Web site: Finalist: The Idiot, by Elif Batuman (Penguin Press). Columbia University. 9 June 2019.
  7. Web site: The Idiot . Book Marks . . 21 June 2019.
  8. News: Garner. Dwight. 2017-02-28. Review: Elif Batuman's 'The Idiot' Sets a Romantic Crush on Simmer. en-US. The New York Times. 2020-09-27. 0362-4331.
  9. Web site: Both Pointless And Playful, 'The Idiot' Is Like A Long Dream. 2020-09-27. NPR.org. en.
  10. Web site: Both Pointless And Playful, 'The Idiot' Is Like A Long Dream. 2020-09-27. NPR.org. en.
  11. Web site: Grady. Constance. 2017-03-29. The Idiot is mostly about semiotics. It's really funny.. 2020-09-27. Vox. en.