The Idiot
Embarking on her freshman year at Harvard in the early tech days of the 1990s, a young artist and daughter of Turkish immigrants begins a correspondence with an older mathematics student from Hungary while struggling with her changing sense of self, first love and a daunting career prospect.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
This book comes off as unpretentious, relatable, down to earth, insightful and funny. It is about a freshman at Harvard who spends a lot of time talking about linguistics and Russian literature and her male friend who is about to do a PhD in math. This doesn’t sound like a recipe for unpretentious, but it really is.
I gotta tell you I did not like Ivan one bit. From the moment he showed up writing what seemed like purposefully obscure emails to the surprise appearance of a girlfriend to the weird reluctance to acknowledge Selin in person. I felt elated when Selins mom pointed out he was a womanizer and when Svetlanas mom determined he was the devil and when the psychologist sorta blew up about him in a way that felt extremely judgmental and inappropriate for a first visit? But also satisfyingly conclusive.
Does the stuff at the end of the book change this? I dunno. The author chooses to have Ivan sorta self reflect and get vulnerable. In real life, I don’t think this is how this went. But seems she’s trying to say “hey look, these are all very young people trying to figure this out and just because Ivan was sort of a jerk at 22 does not mean he doesn’t have the seeds in him to mature past that.” And sorta gives us a glimpse of how that works.
I suppose that’s a mature way to view the situation. The best thing about the book is that the author has the ability to slowly let that unfold while also keeping us in all the real angst that Selin experiences moment to moment.
I gotta talk to more people about this. I’m still not sure.
However, I will note, this is the first time I’ve read a book about kids in college and felt an immediate bond with the parents! Literally every time a parent showed up, I felt a wave of reasonableness and familiarity wash over me.
A refreshing, poignant, and never simple book about young people trying to figure out who they are and also how love works.
FOUR STARS!
I gotta tell you I did not like Ivan one bit. From the moment he showed up writing what seemed like purposefully obscure emails to the surprise appearance of a girlfriend to the weird reluctance to acknowledge Selin in person. I felt elated when Selins mom pointed out he was a womanizer and when Svetlanas mom determined he was the devil and when the psychologist sorta blew up about him in a way that felt extremely judgmental and inappropriate for a first visit? But also satisfyingly conclusive.
Does the stuff at the end of the book change this? I dunno. The author chooses to have Ivan sorta self reflect and get vulnerable. In real life, I don’t think this is how this went. But seems she’s trying to say “hey look, these are all very young people trying to figure this out and just because Ivan was sort of a jerk at 22 does not mean he doesn’t have the seeds in him to mature past that.” And sorta gives us a glimpse of how that works.
I suppose that’s a mature way to view the situation. The best thing about the book is that the author has the ability to slowly let that unfold while also keeping us in all the real angst that Selin experiences moment to moment.
I gotta talk to more people about this. I’m still not sure.
However, I will note, this is the first time I’ve read a book about kids in college and felt an immediate bond with the parents! Literally every time a parent showed up, I felt a wave of reasonableness and familiarity wash over me.
A refreshing, poignant, and never simple book about young people trying to figure out who they are and also how love works.
FOUR STARS!
The author is clearly very intelligent and interesting and so I enjoyed her writing and thoughts. But the story was so meandering it felt like she was just editing her journal into a more literary product. To the extent that there was a "romance" in the book it left me cold. The portion that takes place innEurope introduced way too many new characters too late in the game.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.